Had some fun over the weekend....well it actually started last week when I ran across an old Jim Flis 13mm model design from 1990. Jim called it the "Micro-Dot" which immediately caught my attention...funny how certain words trigger some folks Anyway; I thought HUMM!.... Can I possibly downscale this to 6mm motor size?
Took a couple dry runs to discover this little bugger could be done out of cardstock for much of the construction better then with wood, liteply or waferglass. So that's where she went. a set of 3 folded 110lb cardstock fins with 2 tiny T2+ body rings.
If your really feeling strong eyed, you can also roll the rings from the same cardstock. I found it easier to just cut the rings from T2+ tubing rather then roilling them....but I have the tube anniliator-42000.
To align the fins and attach them I used a 1/4" wooden dowel, spot gluing the fins with plain old white glue then applying thin fillets at the joints and added stir straw launch lugs.
Next the nosecone...Doggone; aren't they always the toughest part to come up with. Having put off several other micro models waiting for a spirit to move me to firing up the micro lathe these little Micro mosquito style cones gave me the urge to spend a day turning. Wanting to keep the newly dubbed "Nano-Dot" as light as possible I decided to go with balsa first, but quickly decided to find another medium. Ended up using 17 lb/cu ft High density foam (SignFoam) which is a little grany but I cranked out about 15-16 in pretty short order.
As with most downscales, I wanted to check stability before going to much further, so a quick swing test right in the basement showed the foam cone was gonna require added a bit of nose weight. Adding tiny bits of clay
she finally stabilized with just under .3g of clay. Hollowing out the foam I dropped in 6 -#9 lead shot pellets and a drop of CA...... We were off to the field for a test flight.
Sorry NO flight pics I didn't even get close to catching the liftoff. OH MAN! talk about a neck jerker! Thank the good lord for the white tracking smoke or i'd have never seen the model at all. As luck would have it the slight breeze drifted the tiny tumbling "DOT" into the woods next to the field. Deeee-RATS. Back to the house to make a couple more just for good measure, and promptly lost both to the same woods later Saturday evening. but what FUN! Had a bunch of the local kids tramping through the woods trying to find one to no avail. I'm hoping on our larger open club flying field I'll be able to recover one.
Seeing how Quick and HIGH these bitsy models went I set up the one page plan to print fins and rings for a dozen models anyway:lol:
I didn't think to take pics of the folding, fin gluing process, I'll add them soon when I build the next 3 or 4
So Heres the "Nano-DOT: Standing just under 1-5/8" overall length it's the tiniest Micro model I've build and flown so far. Tipping the scales at .8g after adding the necessary .3g nose weight it's also the lightest, with a LOWT of 1.9g
As always a much best Hi-res pdf file is posted in the files section of the MicroMaxRockets Yahoo group if you'd like to try building some of these fun little fliers.
Took a couple dry runs to discover this little bugger could be done out of cardstock for much of the construction better then with wood, liteply or waferglass. So that's where she went. a set of 3 folded 110lb cardstock fins with 2 tiny T2+ body rings.
If your really feeling strong eyed, you can also roll the rings from the same cardstock. I found it easier to just cut the rings from T2+ tubing rather then roilling them....but I have the tube anniliator-42000.
To align the fins and attach them I used a 1/4" wooden dowel, spot gluing the fins with plain old white glue then applying thin fillets at the joints and added stir straw launch lugs.
Next the nosecone...Doggone; aren't they always the toughest part to come up with. Having put off several other micro models waiting for a spirit to move me to firing up the micro lathe these little Micro mosquito style cones gave me the urge to spend a day turning. Wanting to keep the newly dubbed "Nano-Dot" as light as possible I decided to go with balsa first, but quickly decided to find another medium. Ended up using 17 lb/cu ft High density foam (SignFoam) which is a little grany but I cranked out about 15-16 in pretty short order.
As with most downscales, I wanted to check stability before going to much further, so a quick swing test right in the basement showed the foam cone was gonna require added a bit of nose weight. Adding tiny bits of clay
she finally stabilized with just under .3g of clay. Hollowing out the foam I dropped in 6 -#9 lead shot pellets and a drop of CA...... We were off to the field for a test flight.
Sorry NO flight pics I didn't even get close to catching the liftoff. OH MAN! talk about a neck jerker! Thank the good lord for the white tracking smoke or i'd have never seen the model at all. As luck would have it the slight breeze drifted the tiny tumbling "DOT" into the woods next to the field. Deeee-RATS. Back to the house to make a couple more just for good measure, and promptly lost both to the same woods later Saturday evening. but what FUN! Had a bunch of the local kids tramping through the woods trying to find one to no avail. I'm hoping on our larger open club flying field I'll be able to recover one.
Seeing how Quick and HIGH these bitsy models went I set up the one page plan to print fins and rings for a dozen models anyway:lol:
I didn't think to take pics of the folding, fin gluing process, I'll add them soon when I build the next 3 or 4
So Heres the "Nano-DOT: Standing just under 1-5/8" overall length it's the tiniest Micro model I've build and flown so far. Tipping the scales at .8g after adding the necessary .3g nose weight it's also the lightest, with a LOWT of 1.9g
As always a much best Hi-res pdf file is posted in the files section of the MicroMaxRockets Yahoo group if you'd like to try building some of these fun little fliers.