Years ago one of my favorite planes was a Tidewater Pronto. I used to fly it on a Fox .25 glow engine, and it was one of the only glow planes I had that had unlimited vertical performance. Although it was only a 3 channel plane, it would do rolling circles, snap rolls, very easily flat spin, and easily handle wind that would ground much larger planes. My really old retired one is still hanging in the rafters of the basement, but it is WAY too oil soaked to try and convert to glow.

Here is my electric rendition. Not sure if the 1/16" wood will be too light as the original was all 1/8" (with some 3/16" thrown in here and there). I did keep the 3/16" tail surfaces. I also used 1/16 play all around so I only needed to use one sheet of ply. Where I needed 1/8" I just doubled up the pieces cross grain. I'm still debating on a motor, and may pick one up at Toledo.

I can post the SU and CNC files if anyone is interested. I did cut the first "kit" out, and need to make some minor changes as I will be cutting 2 more kits for flying buddies.

This is the first full kit I have cut with the Platprinter. I have cut a bunch of wood to modify existing kits, or as add-ons, hot wire templates, and misc stuff for friends. but not a full kit....until now. We'll see how the build goes, but I think it turned out rather well. Attached files

 

YES PLEASE!!! This is AWESOME! I think this is the first wood kit cut on the Phlatprinter!.. I will have to bring a cut out of one of these to the show to let the guys see that it cuts wood to!
Thank you!
Mark and Trish

 

Very cool! :mrgreen:

Can't tell by the pics, but when cutting wood consider setting your tab width smaller than 1/4". It should help getting your parts out.

Very cool indeed!

-Buk

 

Great job Rcav8r!
I've cut some balsa as well but still haven't got around to making a whole kit yet. Designing balsa kits with vacuum formed cowls, canopies, and wheel pants is something I plan to get more into in the near future.

 

MArk/Trish... I'll post the cleaned up files here soon. Gotta go watch the Pens game we DVRed while we were at the kids Champs swim meet. (don't tell me how it ends ) I'll also post a build log as I build it. I added a few things that aren't in the 3D drawing, and it is built without plans, so some spots will need clarification.

7UP. - I tried a few cuts with smaller tabs ( and less of them), but the wood is so thin (1/16") pieces broke off, got caught in the printer, and jammed. Maybe on the ply pieces though as they are a lot sturdier. On the 1/16" balsa it was really easy to free the parts.

3D - I assume you are talking about the vacuformer... yea, can't wait for that one either. After seeing how easy this was ( realitivly speaking) I have a ton of ideas.

 

Awesome Dave! Thank you, looking forward to it!
Mark and Trish

 

This is so cool! Hey, I'll be the first to say that foam is fun, fast, and cheap, but my preferred material will always be balsa.This has been something on my "to-do" list, as well. I have been planning a line of simple building balsa aircraft to help get newbs turned on to the wonderful world of REAL kit building (not just "assembling" LOL). Remember the old Fred Reese Simple Series? Aircraft like he used to make, but with easy-built balsa wings instead of the Ace cores would be MY goal...

Rcav8r, I am looking forward to seeing your files. Thanks for sharing this with us! Your work thus far looks great!

 

OK, here are the files I used. I think I got them all. There is a Word Doc that shows what size wood and quantity is needed for each sheet. These were the files I used to cut.
I used the 1/16" bit from the Phlatboyz bit kit. The 3/16" pieces are set to do a 3 pass cut as I found it took the same time as I was able to bump the speed while getting a nicer cut. You may want to play with the cut speeds, but I found the ones in the files to be a nice compromise between speed and quality of cut.

Yea know Mark, I was thinking the same about having one at the Toledo show. It would be great to have something balsa to show. AS I post build pics, PLEASE be sure to let me know if you have any questions... or if you gt ahead of me in the build, please ask away. As I said earlier, there are no plans per say, and some of the cut parts and methods were changed from the 3D drawing in the zip file.

Enjoy Attached files Pronto.zip (1.6 MB)Â

 

Hay Crash; I agree 100%. Foam is great for quick and dirty, but I really love working with balsa... Even though I think I have more foam planes in my fleet now, I still prefer the way a balsa plane flies....

Yep, I have an old Fred Reese Simple Series 400 under my bench now; just haven't found the time to slap it together yet... Those designes were ahead of their time. They were OK on the speed400s they originally designed for, but I'm sure they would really shine on the more modern, powerful, lighter stuff we enjoy today.

 

Thank you for posting this! I would love to have the built one at the show, but even if we only have the cut outs ( due to time) I think this would be great just to show that it can be done
Thanks again brother!
Mark and Trish

 

Just downloaded and checked out this project and WOW you did an awesome job in creating this kit!. A lot of work went into this and it will pay off for anyone wanting to make this plane.
Really top notch job!
Thank you for sharing it here
Mark and Trish

 

Thanks for the kind words... Problem though if anyone is gonna cut one. I started putting it together, and found that the fuse top is not right. Apparently one of my earlier renditions made it's way to the cut file. Problem is the slot for the front part of the rudder. I hope to have an update tomorrow evening.

Mark, if you only get one cut, and not built for Toledo, I can bring mine ( I really hope it is done) in on Sat for display. Or depending on what time you pass by my way on the way to Toledo, I can hand it off as I'm rather close to the PA turnpike.

Orion, yep, there are a lot of older kits that I really like that are no longer available ( the Pronto being one) that I hope to get cut in the future. A nice .40 size Super Kaos comes to mind as well as a slightly smaller than original Goldburg Tiger II, or a Sig Kougar, or a......
Not sure of the AUW of the Pronto. I think the glow one I had was in the neighborhood of 3pounds. I'm hoping for 2 on this one.

 

That would be awesome! I am not sure that we will have time to stop but maybe. If not and if you could bring yours to the show just so guys can see it assembled. I will still cut the parts and have them there so they could see that the Phlatprinters cut balsa too

 

Yes I remember the Miss Martha kit. Never had one, but always thought it looked like a great flying plane.
As far as the airfoil, yes, I just scanned it, traced it, and then scaled it in SU in it's own file. For the spars, I just put them at the high point, and entered exact measurements, as lines on the scan were rather wide. I tried to use a known airfoil, but none were all that close, and I wanted to preserve the flying characteristics of the original. Also the original had a dowel for the LE, but I had to modify as the bit was too big to make the cut. While I was at it I added the egg crating so I didn't have to print plans.

Speaking of changes...if you build one, do NOT round the tail LE surfaces. Keep them square. A buddy had one that he rounded the LE surfaces, and it flew nothing like the ones with squared off Leading Edges.

Mark, I figured it would be tight time wise, but wanted to offer it for Friday's show. If it is done, I will bring it early Sat AM so at least 1/2 the crowd will see it built.

 

Bugjunkie... The fuse program looks really interesting. I have a really old version of Comufoil (it came on a floppy disk) that has an export to DXF option. Works rather well in SU, but better in AutoCAD.

Anyway here are some build pics.... Attached files

 

Looking good Dave!! Can not wait to see the complete model.

Mark and Trish

 

OK, got some more done....

Attached files

 

On to the hatch..... I don't have a pic of the completed hatch. I'll have to snag one next time I go down to the shop.

Attached files

 

Well the wing design could use a rework, but it will have to do for now. Here I screwed up in a few places, but made do. If this were a kit I was making, I certainly would change a few things.

Remember to build a left wing AND a right wing... Attached files

 

Joining the wing. As I messed up with the angle jig for the root rib, I will have to fill in some space where the spars meet. This is OK as the original wing had a lot less strength than this one as the original had you basically fill in the space all along where the ribs met as they were glued straight, and it basically was a butt joint with a small wedge between the spars up to the 2nd rib.

Due to the above mentioned messed up root rib angle gauge, I broke out one of the root ribs, and will glue in the right way once the glue is cured for joining the wing. I'll also make a small dihedral brace for the TE as I was a little too ambitions with the sanding bar there. Attached files

 

! This is looking fantastic! I have never built a balsa plane before Truly blown away by the techniques used here and how nice its looking!
Great work Dave
Mark