Welcome to my Top Tips page
Here is a collection of useful ideas I have discovered during the building of my planes, cars and Helicopter. None of these are in any particular order, hope they help you as they did me. Some of them have been published in RCM&E
Wireless starter
Before I start I must admit this is not one of my ideas, the unit is commercially available, just not in the UK. I have seen this in a US catalogue, but after lots of hunting I have failed to find one. So, I have decided to make my own, so as far as I can see it is new to the UK. And of course it’s a better one…!The idea is to have a truly portable starter and with the added advantage, which I think is the biggest plus, no trailing wires…!
The whole thing consists of, starter (you need to get one with the little legs on, Hobby Stores do one), a box, battery and a couple of connectors for charging. (All available from Maplin)
And before you ask, yes it is a little heavy, but you will be surprised once it is all together how easy it is to use and you do not notice the weight.
The battery used is a 12v 2.1AH gel cell and has more than enough capacity to last a good few sessions at the field. The connectors are wired in parallel with the battery and starter and give access to charge the battery without dismantling the box.
And so simple to use…!
Flexible Cap Strip
While constructing a small lightweight wing for an electric fun fly (See Femento on the planes page) I was having problems getting the capping strip to bend around the leading edge of the rib. I tried all the normal tricks, i.e. soaking, steam, and rolling under a bottle, non-of which gave very good results. So using a bit of lateral thinking, well horizontal actually, I cut the strip for the front, with the grain going across the rib, this produced very nice results, no loss of strength and looked just as good.
What Switch...?
This is a problem I have with my TX, Futaba 8U, too many switches. So how many switches do you use during normal flight, one, two at the most, (landing gear, engine kill..!) and out of the 8 on there how do you identify which one you need. You only have a split second to glance down at the TX and get the right switch, most frustrating. So I have been thinking of how do I 'flag' one switch, make it stand out from the rest..... well I was scratching around in the workshop to make some elaborate device to bolt onto one switch to make it stand out and I hound the answer, a 1'' length of fuel tube, yep simple as that... Oh, that is bright fluorescent fuel tube, just slip it over the relevant switch.....
Sharps Bin
What do you do with all you old scalpel blades and naff pins...? Chuck them in the bin, ony to rediscover them sticking in you hand when you empty the bin, or worst still sticking in the wife's hand....now your in trouble. I have an old drink can on the bench, clearly marked, that I chuck all the old blades and pins in.... Nice and safe....