building on a budget

[homersainty]

hiya as I';m not working at the minute (still got a job just of with an injury ) well money is tight   on overtime just getting paid a flat 40 hours . Well i need something to do to stop me going mad so I';m building on the cheep
4 second hand SK flashed 20amp esc';s cost me £30  had them laying round a while
5 1100 kv motors brought from teslahead £15
kk2 fc £20
a sheet of carbon fiber £12
ally channel £5
and some nuts bolts odds and sods  i had laying around and spare 6100 Rx i had also
only thing i did not have is a bucket of lightness forgoton how weight seems to add up quickly  ::)
well frame was just a lil heavier than i would have liked but may be able to loose some weight there yet but its 194.5 grams at the moment


well add the esc';s power board and kk2 it';s now 318.5 grams but again may be able to loose a lil weight buy tidying up the wiring a lil


well tomorrow i need to run motors up and find the best 4 and balance them then a lil wiring and its time to play with the kk2 will update when i got a lil more to show

[feefo]

Having just ordered my 1st quad kit (X525), someone posted in another forum that the model I';d picked had a lack of spares available. But you';ve just given me the sparky idea of using some carbon sheet, or even glass fibre sheet I already have should I need to repair it. Strange how the blindingly obvious isn';t always obvious, so thanks for making me think....

[paulcobra]

Could just drill a series of holes down each alloy arm, start one end and reduce size as you go for looks? Might reduce weight a litte.

[Gaza07]

Looking good Homer look forward to seeing the test flight 

[XH558]

Having just ordered my 1st quad kit (X525), someone posted in another forum that the model I';d picked had a lack of spares available. But you';ve just given me the sparky idea of using some carbon sheet, or even glass fibre sheet I already have should I need to repair it. Strange how the blindingly obvious isn';t always obvious, so thanks for making me think....

Ply';s even cheaper 

[feefo]

Ply';s even cheaper 

True but I';ve got some carbon sheet offcuts that I managed to blag from a place that specialise in making carbon ';things';. In fact a LHS owner got them to make some carbon parts for his heli, I guess they';d make other bits too, but I doubt they';d be the cheap option.

They have 2 online stores

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Default.aspx

http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/

I use them for carbon rods or tube for my FW control rods etc.

[teslahed]

I would definitely suggest flying it before you do anything too drastic to try and lose weight. Those motors with 8 or 9 inch props wont have any difficulty as long as the quadcopter is less than 750g total and can probably lift more as long as you aren';t bothered about acrobatics.

[homersainty]

True but I';ve got some carbon sheet offcuts that I managed to blag from a place that specialise in making carbon ';things';. In fact a LHS owner got them to make some carbon parts for his heli, I guess they';d make other bits too, but I doubt they';d be the cheap option.

They have 2 online stores

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Default.aspx

http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/

I use them for carbon rods or tube for my FW control rods etc.

Ply';s even cheaper 

Ply';s even cheaper 

But not as sexy

[Gav]

Nice one - home builds are good fun.  How come you have the esc';s going out the sides - going for a clean look? Doesn';t it make it awkward for you with the wiring?
I hid the motor wiring inside the ally arms on my last home frame build.  looks good but extra wiring adds weight plus the extra time it takes to fiddle around.  So many different ways to do things eh?! Look forward to the maiden vid. ;D

Cheers
Gav

[XH558]

But not as sexy

';Tis if you paint it black and squint when you look at it 

I have to say if he has access to carbon offcuts then that beats ply hands down ... I only use ply because a) I have access to free ply offcuts... and b) I';m too stingy to buy carbon    (well alright I bought some carbon 10mm square tube for the Hex - but I am seriously thinking of going back to aluminium and ply as my staple building materials  )

I';m all for ';building on a budget'; much more fun than kits - and IMHO you learn more 

[feefo]

I';m all for ';building on a budget'; much more fun than kits - and IMHO you learn more 

All very well provided you can cut straight.....

[XH558]

All very well provided you can cut straight.....

That';s the VERY point ... you LEARN to cut straight by doing it & getting it wrong .. perhaps several times 
CA is brilliant - if you cut it wrong CA it back on and try again 

I have been doing it 50 years and I still get it wrong (occasionally  ) but I still get more pleasure from thinking about how I';m going to build something cheaply - assembling the bits I can afford and getting it all together successfully so it flies ... not just these quads but planks too.

I will admit to having a very large scrap box under my cutting bench  :embarrassed :embarrassed
But fettling is magic... I love it   

My best mistake to date was trying to cut 1/8th balsa strip from a plank so I didn';t have to buy any ... got my trusty metal ruler and held it down firmly with my finger ends pressing down very firmly so it didn';t move ... forgot that fingers ';squash'; down a little bit when pressed  and with my very sharp scalpel trimmed about 1/16th off the ends of 3 fingers... quite neatly      I can tell you that blood soaks in to balsa very quickly    I did think about gluing the bits of finger back on with CA ... but left them off thinking that it';s be less likely to happen next time now there';s less skin there  That plank still has the blood soaked balsa within it';s structure ... well you can';t waste it can you 

[feefo]

That';s the VERY point ... you LEARN to cut straight by doing it & getting it wrong .. perhaps several times 
CA is brilliant - if you cut it wrong CA it back on and try again 

I have been doing it 50 years and I still get it wrong (occasionally  ) but I still get more pleasure from thinking about how I';m going to build something cheaply - assembling the bits I can afford and getting it all together successfully so it flies ... not just these quads but planks too.

I will admit to having a very large scrap box under my cutting bench  :embarrassed :embarrassed
But fettling is magic... I love it   

My best mistake to date was trying to cut 1/8th balsa strip from a plank so I didn';t have to buy any ... got my trusty metal ruler and held it down firmly with my finger ends pressing down very firmly so it didn';t move ... forgot that fingers ';squash'; down a little bit when pressed  and with my very sharp scalpel trimmed about 1/16th off the ends of 3 fingers... quite neatly      I can tell you that blood soaks in to balsa very quickly    I did think about gluing the bits of finger back on with CA ... but left them off thinking that it';s be less likely to happen next time now there';s less skin there  That plank still has the blood soaked balsa within it';s structure ... well you can';t waste it can you 

Dunno, I';m pretty bad at cutting, don';t seem to be getting any better either. I';ve come to the conclusion there';s those who can. and those who can';t. As far as cutting things accurately, I';m in the 2nd group.

Getting it wrong with ply isn';t too bad tho, but codging up carbon sheet, even when it was free, is a little annoying 

[homersainty]

a few pics from today i have tided up the wiring a little not that you would notice from the pictures but i have honest the esc';s will now be hidden in the arms well they kinda fit was just gona chuck it together to see if it works but thought may as well tidy it up now just in case it douse 

[XH558]

Carbon centre = carbon props .... time to get some black Hammerite on that aluminium - then it';d look really cool 

[homersainty]

a few pics from today all ready to maiden tomorrow 

[teslahed]

That looks very smart homer.

[XH558]

Ah - now that';s very interesting ... you seem to have used 3 sided aluminium not box section 

I bought some of that from B&Q for my first quad - but after I';d built it I was a bit concerned about the rotational flex in the arms ... it didn';t seem rigid enough. So before i flew it I stripped it all down and rebuilt it with aluminium box section.

Mind you the arms on mine may have been a tad longer and therefore more prone to flex.

It will be very interesting to see what you think when you';ve flown it 

[Smeagol]

Well spotted, I looked at the photo and didn';t catch on. I was struggling to find 10mm square in the local diy and picked up the "U" section, I thought it was a little flexible over the length of the arms on mine so I didn';t get it. Looks like these are a thicker section.

I like the idea of hiding the wiring in the channel section, much neater.

The build looks great, the CF interweave is real nice matched with the props, black arms will make it all look real well, great work.

[secretman]

where your propeller from? and what size?? nice looking quad!

[paulcobra]

Could even get the sticky back plastic in carbon effect to cover those arms, car spares places sell it or ebay

[feefo]

Could even get the sticky back plastic in carbon effect to cover those arms, car spares places sell it or ebay

I bought some from ebay, it';s not very sticky tho. I have to apply some 3m 77 to it to get it to stick, and it';s not great then either.

[paulcobra]

Car spares places tend to have better quality stuff.