"Cloudster" Construction Project Session #56
Speed 400
Cloudster Project
To obtain a light stiff battery box, the top and
bottom of the box was made by laminating 1/32" sheet balsa with 1/16" sheet
balsa. Since these were bonded with aliphatic glue, they had to be clamped
down tightly while the glue dried as shown below.
Here you can see the edges of the box's laminated
top and bottom.
This shows the battery box assembled with 1/16"
balsa vertical grain sides.
This picture shows the Li-Po battery slipped the
battery into the box with foam to snug it up. The length of the box is 1.82"
as shown.
A trial fit of the battery box inside the fuselage
structure is shown below.
The length of the battery box is constrained so
that the battery can be removed for charging from the bottom bay directly
below and behind the battery box as shown below. This bay will be fitted with
a removable hatch cover.
The Electronic Speed Control (ESC) will be mounted
on a shelf above the battery box. Therefore it was necessary to go in under
the planked turtle deck and make the opening shown below for the ESC wires to
go through to the Speed 400 motor. This was a little difficult, but doable.
The shelf for the ESC was constructed of 1/32"
plywood with two 3/16" square balsa runners as shown below. The shelf was 1"
wide and 1-11/16" long.
The top of the shelf was given two coats of clear
dope with a light sanding in between coats. Then the hook side of Velcro was
attached as shown below.
The shelf was then glued into the fuselage
structure as shown below.
This shows the shelf from the bottom with the two
runners.......................Tandy
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