home made Blades

SteveE · Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject: home made Blades

Hi guys, 1st post, I got myself a lama V4 and, well what a nightmare, I've pretty much destroyed it in two day, so Ive just brought a AH-64 3 Channel Apache Helicopter to pretty much wreck Ive also got coming an E sky Hunter, all pretty much simple Helis of course.

Anyway now the reason I'm posting, since I destroyed the Lama's 4 blades in quick order I thought about making my own..I did some looking around the house and came across a used up silicon holder (see vid)
Well in the vid the top two blades are from the holder and they work.

noobs always think they "know stuff" and I'm no different Smile

, now to look around the forum and actually start learning stuff.

http://www.leadguitaranswers.com/helicopter/blades.wmv

thanks

tombo242 · Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:02 am Post subject:

Hi SteveE,

Thought that I kept on the cheap side, but that has me beat. Great job - better than my card canopies for my min heli.

Any chance of blades for a 400 class CCP heli?
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admiral · Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:37 am Post subject:

Hi SteveE,

Great job, I'm really pleased to see inventiveness still lives on.
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SteveE · Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys, tombo, I'm sure you know stuff Smile

It would take something like a cut up reinforced venetian blind to support those revs and forces, I'll look into it lol.

tombo242 · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:05 am Post subject:

Hadn't thought of that SteveE, only problem is the collective pitch, you've got to have symmetrical section blades. Perhaps two blades sandwiched together with foam might do the job. I'll take a look at the wifes' blinds in the kitchen. Cool

Thanks for the suggestion.
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SteveE · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:08 am Post subject:

Tombo, would you mind posting a few pics of your heli and some different angles of your blades, up close and not to far away, I'm interested Ive been watching a few vids of the TREX series helis and the flying generated forces involved fascinate me, I am a cheap person and since blades seem to be the first things that go it'll be good to see how to make a cheap set properly eh, at least till I get a trex.
So there's a spare "wife" shortly floating around, my wife could do with a new friend:)

tombo242 · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 5:22 am Post subject: R

OK SteveE, took these tonight, apart from the crash-sectioned blade. Jammed servo over concrete is not recommended. Twisted Evil

As you can see pretty standard apart from Trex blades, skids and feathering shaft. I have Trex tail blades for when I wear these out.
Sometimes wonder why I didn't get a Trex at the start, but then this was a 73rd birthday present from my wife so I daren't say a word out loud.

Don't know about the wives Wink

have you seen where we both live?
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SteveE · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:04 am Post subject:

Tombo I'm not quite ready to talk about the blades, Ive been thinking for a while now after reading your post and doing some looking around.

Now Dad flew in the battle of Briton he was the squadron leaders wing man and we are all pretty proud of him, this has absolutely nothing to do with this of course but I noticed your age and thought it may be of small interest and we are talking about flying.

So, Ive been looking at the V blinds we have in the house, a wing is a particular shape (of course) but with a heli the lift is because of the attitude ? of the blade which gives it lift, so the blade doesn't have to be "that good" it has to be strong, just as long as it gives lift eh.

I'm going to try making one. Your idea of the foam to space should be ok but polystyrene may be better and it's easy to make a cutter for it to shape, I was thinking if you took a high E string off a guitar and soldered just the ends to each inside end of the cut off V Blind that would give it the tensile strength needed, but, if it's to strong it would just break the roto upon impact and the blades would still crumple, what's need is several brake points on the blade.

I'm thinking firstly I'm a 52 year old idiot with a tad to much time on my hands, that pretty much covers it lol.

I'm going to have a look in a few shops for hard plastic extrusions before I do anything.

We are a we way away for them to have a cup of tea Smile

and OH YES helis/concrete/speed isn't a good blend Smile

are they kevlar blades? I wonder if fibreglass would work, east to make and cheap, you could just wrap around a piece of wood from a simple template you could even make break impact points, get the lathe out tombo !!.

SteveE · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:47 am Post subject:

The V blind idea

http://www.leadguitaranswers.com/helicopter/blinds.wmv

Nice heli you have there Tombo.

Have to rush, a friends just bought one and he wants me to show him how to fly it, one born every day and one dead heli buy the end of this day Smile

tombo242 · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:46 pm Post subject:

Re: Your Dad.
I did 16 years from 1955 on with RAF Fighter command. Sent all over with different squadrons. First posting was 2 Sqdn (meteors) in Germany. Must have been long after his time with the RAF.

That's a great video SteveE, like the idea. Your accent took me back to RAF Tengha (Singapore) and the Kiwi squadron people I befriended there.

The blades I use are glassfibre and the wire you can see in the "Crash" pic is real stiff stuff. A guitar "E" string would not do (I had a look at both of mine, not anything like the same). These blades are wood with the wire support and glassfibre coating. Not really expensive, I put in bids on Ebay, got the last set of 5 pairs for $18.88 USD inc shipping.
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SteveE · Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:52 pm Post subject:

What a dag you flew as well Tombo, I remember reading dads log book, he mostly flew hurricanes over India and that region, as I think back, his first flight he wrote "twitch" in the log book, I later found out he actually crashed and walked back to the aerodrome, I fly in his footsteps with this accursed helicopter lol

That sounds a good buy with the blades, I thought they ere supposed to be expensive, I'll still attempt, the fun is in the doing eh.

I also recall now that the victory roll upon returning was forboden, they crashed a lot and the practise of raising the undercarriage in spitfires while taking off was again disallowed ( they didn't go fast enough and belly'd), he said they did it to "look cool" or was it "groovy" in 1945

"I say, belly up Ginger we're off to save Blighty" seems to come to mind from somewhere Confused

Something tells me you have some stories Tombo, dad never spoke about the war, no one did. Do you still keep in contact with your Kiwi friends ?.

I still think we are on topic Very Happy

tombo242 · Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:36 am Post subject:

Think you only have 1 line on "Topic" there SteveE. Yes the blades were a bargain, I get a lot of my spares from Hong Kong and China. You have to search around on the net and see what is about. The link for my blades is:
This site.

If you want to discuss the "Old Days" we had better go over to PMs' and leave the guys in peace. Confused

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