Building a SSC Warbird Fuselage - Page #4

We'll start mounting the electronics. Beginning with the elevator servo.

Mark an outline of the servo on the foam. The servo is going to mounted with the top of the servo facing out, with the servo arm exposed.

An easy way to cut out the cavity for the servo is use a "Zip" bite in a dremel with the router head set to just the depth of the servo.

And then very carefully route out the outline of the servo. Be careful to do an accurate cut so that the servo will fit tightly into the foam.

Though it wasn't shown in earlier pictures, if you use the box knife and cut around the inside of the servo outline before you route out the foam you'll end up with a clean square cavity when you're done. After you've routed out the majority of the foam you can go back with the knife and clean out the rest.

Resulting with something like this.

There are probably several ways to do the routing of the wires and cables. One way that works well and isn't very hard to get used to done is to head a piece of piano wire to make the initial the channel and then a piece of brass tubing to enlarge the channel to it's final diameter.

This picture gives you an idea of where the elevator servo cable channel is going to be.

After you've gotten the angle figured out. Run your cold wire up from the wing saddle to the elevator cavity to make your initial channel.

If you got the angle right you should end up at the front of the channel just like this. You may have make a second try to get it where you want it.

Now take that same wire and heat it with a torch but heat it several inches back from the tip. The reason is that the cold tip will follow up the initial channel that you made and the hot part of the wire back further will melt and expand the channel as you continue up the channel to the servo cavity.

Heat the wire good but don't get close to the end of the wire and don't spend a lot of time heating the wire and letting the heat travel to the end of the wire. You may want to practice on some scrape foam to get the hang of this.

After you enlarged the channel with the hot wire you can then do the same thing with a piece of brass tubing. Heating it several inches back from the tip so that the tip will simply follow the channel and the hot portion of the tubing will melt the foam behind.

If you've been careful you'll end up with the tubing coming out where it should.

You should end up with a channel about like this for running the servo cable down through.

Fish the servo cable down through the channel

Press fit the servo flush

Next do the same thing with the throttle servo

Click on the thumbnail for a larger version!

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We'll start mounting the electronics. Beginning with the elevator servo.	Mark an outline of the servo on the foam. The servo is going to mounted with the top of the servo facing out, with the servo arm exposed.		An easy way to cut out the cavity for the servo is use a "Zip" bite in a dremel with the router head set to just the depth of the servo.
And then very carefully route out the outline of the servo. Be careful to do an accurate cut so that the servo will fit tightly into the foam.	Though it wasn't shown in earlier pictures, if you use the box knife and cut around the inside of the servo outline before you route out the foam you'll end up with a clean square cavity when you're done. After you've routed out the majority of the foam you can go back with the knife and clean out the rest.	Resulting with something like this.	There are probably several ways to do the routing of the wires and cables. One way that works well and isn't very hard to get used to done is to head a piece of piano wire to make the initial the channel and then a piece of brass tubing to enlarge the channel to it's final diameter.
This picture gives you an idea of where the elevator servo cable channel is going to be.	After you've gotten the angle figured out. Run your cold wire up from the wing saddle to the elevator cavity to make your initial channel.	If you got the angle right you should end up at the front of the channel just like this. You may have make a second try to get it where you want it.	Now take that same wire and heat it with a torch but heat it several inches back from the tip. The reason is that the cold tip will follow up the initial channel that you made and the hot part of the wire back further will melt and expand the channel as you continue up the channel to the servo cavity.
Heat the wire good but don't get close to the end of the wire and don't spend a lot of time heating the wire and letting the heat travel to the end of the wire. You may want to practice on some scrape foam to get the hang of this.	After you enlarged the channel with the hot wire you can then do the same thing with a piece of brass tubing. Heating it several inches back from the tip so that the tip will simply follow the channel and the hot portion of the tubing will melt the foam behind.	If you've been careful you'll end up with the tubing coming out where it should.
You should end up with a channel about like this for running the servo cable down through.	Fish the servo cable down through the channel	Press fit the servo flush	Next do the same thing with the throttle servo