Make your own wings old school style

[bigcane]

thought i would share how I build my own wings. I did this a few months ago and the wing turned out really well and now it is time to build a smaller wing. This method is more work than shaping a wood core by hand but the result is much better. The idea is to hotwire foam using a wood template and then glass it with epoxy and lightweight fiberglasss. then lots of sanding and polishing to get the plug ready for molding. in general I have to cut 4 to 6 foam half wings before I get 1 perfect one so make lots of extra foam blocks to practice on. you can see in the 4th picture the flaws caused by the wire dragging erractically on the wood template. this was solved on the next cut by waxing the wood surface to make the wire slide smoothly. the taper of the wing in chord and thickness is a function of how close the foam block is to the anchor point of the hotwire
I get alot of enjoyment in creating my own designs rather than just molding someone else's work. Here are the pics from today's effort - more later as I progress

[tahoedirk]

Nice BC that's exactly how I do it. So glad to see I'm not alone. What is your template made of 1/8" pine? I use Formica, also for my board rocker template .

[bigcane]

Hi tahoedirk, i am using 3mm plywood for the templates, pretty easy to work with. By the way, been really impressed with your builds.

[tahoedirk]

Thanks, I thought wood would burn or snag the wire. Never even considered it, good to know. Keep it up!

[tahoedirk]

I learned to make my templates in two pieces ,top and bottom, with formica. Drawing a pencil lead on the edge of the templates lubrcates the hot wire too. Here is a piclure of many templates and a few wings. I also made a pulley and string system for accurately cutting tapered wings nearly perfectly.

Good stuff, try it.

[Bille]

Hot-wiring wanna-Bees :

See that chaffing in the foam on the third shot from the bottom ?
It's caused from when the hot-wire dragged on the stencil.

The way around 90% of that flaw, is to make your stencil out of
aluminum 1/6" thick , and polish the contact point with 600g wet/dry
and oil for your finish. The wire won't drag ; the extra work is worth it !!

Another molding method :

After Ya get good at making decent hot-wire foam wings ; you can toss the
wing core and use the cradles for a female mold, after you stabilize them with
(2) layers of 3-oz glass. I usually leave a 2-inch reveal on the LE and TE, for something
to attach my vacuum bag to.

Those cradles can be bent, by attaching them to a curved table, instead of a flat
one , Before the glass job. Glass both sides of the foam at the same time, or it will distort
the mold

[bigcane]

Hi Billie, great idea using the cradles instead of the cores, never thought of that!

[bigcane]

Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Ready for the gelcoat pour after a couple more coats of wax

[Bille]

Hi Billie, great idea using the cradles instead of the cores, never thought of that!

See how tahoedirk's cut wings look (?) ; just add a 2" joggle edge, to the LE & TE, and that will
represent your center-line when closing the mold 1/2's. You need to make top and bottom
templates for each side like tahoedirk already mentioned. I place 1/32" steel wire with brass
over-sleeve to the mold before i separate them on the initial build ,(for future alignment ).

Bille

[Bille]

These were used to make a female mold ; i tossed the wing core.
It's an Eppler 836 , 127mm cord and 1M long.
After the cradles are stabilized ; there is plenty of room on the joggle-edge
to attach a vacuum bag.

Bille