RC Cap 21

This is a project that I've been working on for about two years and I've just finished it.  It’s a 1/6 scale RC Mudry Cap 21. I got the plans out of a RCM&E magazine August 2007 edition. Credit to Peter Miller who designed this model, it’s a very nice plane and it was a good set of plans.  

Pete mate, I did make one small change to your plans, I enlisted snoopy as the pilot.

Some of the more observant amongst you may have noticed that the black lining around the canopy is in fact duct tape and that it creases around the curve. Don't worry, that's just because I didn't have any black paint, as soon as I do then I'll do a proper job on it. Also there is no stepping pad on the wing next to the cockpit and this too is because I didn't have the right materials at hand but I'll get round to it sooner or later.   

The first job was to cut out all the formers of which there are a lot and each one is different, and they're all pretty tricky.  

After a lot of work I finally managed to get one wing done. 

After a lot more work I got the other side done along with the ailerons, servo, bellcrank and former strips.     

The beginnings of the fuselage.

The fuselage is actually not far from being done here, it's mostly the engine cowl that needs work. Work that I put off for a long time because I really wasn't looking  forward to it. 

Engine now in with a brand new prop and spinner. 

From this point onward I forgot to take any more pictures until all of the white covering was on. 

I think it looks good. The cowl is completely finished now and I pushed the boat out with some brand new undercarriage and wheel pants. 

This plane is a replica of one specific Cap 21 so the colour scheme and the registration are the same as the real F-GAUK however the real F-GAUK didn't have wheel pants but some other 21's did and I think they look nice. 

There are a couple of things on this plane that I am particularly proud of, namely the canopy and the "TOTAL" decals because I made both of them myself. I made the canopy by first making a mold of the shape of the canopy in plaster but in hindsight wood would have been better and then I got a large soft-drink bottle, cut it up and stretched it over the mold while heating it with a head gun. The plastic contracts in heat and forms very nicely around the mold. To make the decals I got the logo off the internet, printed it out to the right size and then painted each side several times with clear enamel paint, this I hope should protect the paper inside. To apply them I simply smeared epoxy on the back and stuck it on, simple as that. It will be interesting to see if my little invention withstands the test of time.         

This is a beautiful plane I really enjoyed making it, mostly, but I'm so glad it's finished now. It looks absolutely stunning, the dogs kahooners!  

2012 Robotics.

For the past four years I have been involved in Robocup junior at a regional, state and national level. The first year I did Robocup I was in grade 8 and it was the first time I had ever been involved in robotics. Being a builder type person, my robot was the best and toughest in my robotics class. Unfortunately that was my first time programming so whilst our teams robot was good, it had a rubbish programme on it and we came dead last in the competition. That was probably a good thing in an odd way because it taught us how competitive these events are and how good your robots have to be. All of this made me work harder and the next year when I paired up with my now good friend John, who is amazing at everything by the way, we came just THIRD in the state titles. The first year I did Robocup I did soccer but the second year I did rescue. Robot soccer is pretty self-explanatory but rescue is a bit tricky. Basically the robot must follow a black line on a white mat and negotiate a series of obstacles on the way. Once it gets to the end of the course it then has to pick up a soft drink can and place it on top of a 70mm high block of wood, and of course points are awarded along the way for completing the sections. It’s harder than it sounds! Trust me!  Last year I paired up with John again and we did really well, we won the state competition and came fifth at the nationals. This year we brought two more people onto the team and with guidance from the other three; I built the robot that you see here. It is a very far cry from the Lego robots we built in previous years and it was the best robot at the national competition, I know this because our team won the engineering award which consists of a $2000 scholarship each to an engineering university. Unfortunately the award was only open to grade 12’s, they were all in grade 12, I was in grade 11, which is a bit unfair really considering I BUILT THE WHOLE DAMN ROBOT!  So, they owe me big time. The rules state that each team must write a logbook of the robots construction and I've put mine on Google doc’s which you can view at the link.  As far as the competition went, we didn't go very well at all, because whilst the robot is very very very good (not my words) and our programmer had written an amazing programme  there were some tricky technical issues with the sensors which we simply could not overcome. That was quite disappointing and also quite embarrassing because the robot looks so good but its performance was pretty poor. In summery I enjoyed the whole experience, it was great to have a piece of engineering that I created win an award. That was a very proud moment. I also enjoyed working with the others on the team; I genuinely believe that all four of us are something special.

Look at the logbook!

When I started building this jewelry box I had a deadline of one month, needless to say I vastly underestimated how long it would actually take. In the end it turned out to take about three and a half months of work to get it to a stage at which it could be varnished, which I still haven’t done yet. Hopefully I will get it spray varnished sometime soon.     

This is by far the best piece I made this year at college, I chose a jewelry box because I've wanted to make a nice one for a long time. The first thing I did was to look at some existing jewelry box designs and see if there was one I liked. I found a website that sold a very complicated box with a self lifting-out tray, compartments underneath and a draw on the bottom. This design suites  me perfectly because it has wood, mechanical moving parts and tricky maths in the support strut. So I decided to make basically a replica of this one. As for materials it's the usual suspects, Huon pine and Myrtle. The tray, draw, lid and all the dividers are Huon and the sides are Myrtle. The little handles for the lid and draw are Australian cedar and I've felted all the compartments and the inside of the lid. The top of the lid is a single piece of birds eye Huon pine which was very difficult to get hold of because it had to be no less than 205mm wide and Huon pine gets expensive when it gets wide. Talking of dimensions it is 330mm in width, 230mm deep and 155mm high and all the sides are 15mm in thickness. Overall I'm extremely pleased with it, this box has turned a lot of heads so just imagine how good it will look when it's finished!

I know this is meant to be about ambitious projects but hey, you've got to start somewhere and this was the first piece I ever turned on a lathe. I'ts made from a single block of Celery-top pine and it was good practice for the table legs that I would later make.

Myself and a friend of mine made this Huon pine and Blackwood coffee table. He made the top out of a single slab of Huon pine which had to have three butterfly or "bowtie" joints put in as you can see in the picture above because there were three long cracks developing in one end. I made the turned Blackwood legs and then fitted them with the help of our teacher. It was such a nice piece that rather than oiling it with linseed oil as we would usually in our class, we thought we'd get it professionally spray varnished which turned out to be well worth-while because the finish is extremely nice and although it cost about $100 we sold the whole table for $550, which made us both happy chappies. So overall a very good project, very pleased with it.

This was the second thing I made at college this year. The lid and base are Tasmanian Huon pine and the sides are Myrtle. I chose this piece of Myrtle because of the wonderful fiddleback and because of the interesting sapwood-like coloring. I say sapwood-like because it's in the center of the piece of wood and sapwood occurs at the outer edge of the tree so it's likely that this coloring is due to the beginnings of rot in the center of the tree, but it looks nice.

This was the second Item I made at college in 2012, the first was, well, let's just say it was less than internet worthy but this is much better and now it greets all comers to our house.

A rather nice little clock I made at college, it only took me about three hours all told.