Little Jumping Bean

I've finished the wing on the Lil' Jumping Bean ...

Few pictures will be forth coming ....

But 2 comments, unfortunately negative.

First, the ribs aren't laser cut right. They are too short by 3/16", and the overall shape is small. It's like someone didn't use the fullscale drawing when they setup the laser machine. They certainly dont match the plans and now that I've made the adjustment to MAKE them fit, the wing fitment in the fuse produces a big gap fore/aft and it doesn't fit tight at all. I'll push the wing as far forward as I can ... and then use excess balsa to fill the big gap at the TE. Not looking forward to flying it, but I'll continue on because this project was more about practicing a finishing technique for another plane.

Second thing .... 1 hardware package was shorted. All the leadout hardware and the plastic motor mount for tanked engines is missing. I had supplies here and made the leadouts .... and I wont be using the plastic mount, as I'll build my own firewall, so its not a huge inconvenience .... but it was supposed to be there.

I've had a number of Brodak kits .... but this one is the worst. But, what can you expect for 34.00

I expect a fully furnished kit for $34 bucks. That's what I paid for my Jumpin' Bean and Baby Streak, and they had all the parts included.

If I was building another Bean, I would add some tapered fixed flaps to extend the wing chord, but just a little, nothing radical. I got wild and added large fixed flaps at the TE when I built the Refried bean.

The wingtips are easy to bend toward the tighter side of the covering. That's probably not a problem with your covering, but I thought I would mention it since the tips are sort of flimsy.
Rusty

Larry,

Take a step back and call John, I am sure he will send a replacement kit. The one I built was a very early Brodak kit and it had problems too.

No sense in continuing on with something you are not happy with.

I understand that Brodak kits are well received, maybe you just got a friday afternoon job. But, I have always been impressed with Black Hawk kit's for about the same price. All mine have been excellent in all regards.

Bob

Yeah, I'd planned on giving them (Brodak) a call as an FYI ... but I wouldn't expect a replacement to be any better. These kits are made by the pallet or even container. I'd bet there was a whole run on the laser cutter that is undersized. The hardware kit thats missing could be an undersight and simply wasn't thrown in the box.

I'll adapt to it and see what happens.

This photo shows the jigs in place as per plans and the LE/TE pinned. This is when I found the ribs too short.  Basically what I did is moved the TE jigs closer to the LE until the ribs fit.  I don't have a photo of that ... cause by then I was more concerned with making adjustments than taking pics.



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Since I'm not using the landing gear, this photo shows a snipped piece of the landing gear being used as a reinforcement of the 2 halves of the LE. It was epoxied in and then a small piece of ply epoxied on top.





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Bellcrank .... leadouts .... and pushrod installed



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Wingtips ..... center sheeting .... and leadout guides installed.  Still contemplating if I'm going to do anything to strengthen the fragile wingtips.

Called Brodak, and unknown to me ... ALL laser cutting is done in-house. I talked to Parker, the laser cutting guy and he said he'd look into it.

At their insistence, they will send the shorted leadout kit and nylon motor mount

Well that sucks air , hopefully they didn't cut a pallet of those but if they did maybe there could be a big discount on shortened rib models ? Larry , never built the bean are those blocks of wood at the LE between ribs standard with this model ? Eric

No.... I saw another member do this in another jumping bean thread. I thought that it couldn't hurt, so why not. It did stiffen the ribs ... and with all the handling of the wing during starting/launching etc, alittle more strength would eliminate a "ooops"

The problem is more than likely in the plans themselves. Even when Brodak sends two sheets , one sheet doesn't always alighn with the match lines of the other. Ken

Hey Ken - I checked that the best I could ... simply laying parts that were left onto the plans. Both elevator/rudder halves, the fuse and the wing tips were perfect matches to the plans. The only thing that wasn't ... was the ribs.

larrys4227 wrote:This photo shows the jigs in place as per plans and the LE/TE pinned. This is when I found the ribs too short.  Basically what I did is moved the TE jigs closer to the LE until the ribs fit.  I don't have a photo of that ... cause by then I was more concerned with making adjustments than taking pics.

Hey Larry, be sure to keep those jigs, they will come in handy many times in the future. Especially the TE jigs. I've used them in combination with square blocks to align a Sterling Yak-9 and a Skyray 35 wing on the building board.

Another tip, that sanding bar in the picture... If you get a long one, you can cut some short ones off of it for an assortment of lengths. I have one of the multi-contour ones and even use the handle side as a sanding face.
Rusty

Rusty .... LOL! I gots a number of sanding blocks .... mostly homemade. Different sizes with different grits. I also have the contoured bar .... doesn't get much use tho.

Those wing jigs are already set aside .... I noticed it was the only item not shown on the plans, sooo nothing to duplicate if I needed them on the future. They're a keeper.

Catching up on the forum while I wait for 30-minute epoxy to harden ... but its worth the wait as it's for the homemade firewall on the Bean.

Progress on the Jumpin' Bean ....

More progress .... heres the underside of the elevator.  It will have sewn hinges and I took the advice of another CEF member and reinforced where the thread will come through.  I used scrap from the kits fuse doubler's ... very thin, but it should really do the job to keep the nylon thread from pulling through the thin balsa.  Holes are .048 and tried my best to keep them aligned and uniform from top to bottom.

Next up is to silk both halves and then install the stab half onto the plane. Sewing the elevator on will be one of the last things after paint and trim finish.

This is going to be a really well built Bean. Good work, Larry.
Mine was pretty, but it was a lead sled by the time I got finished painting it. And my first try at Ultracote on the wing and stab.
Rusty

I dont know how well built it will be .... I see alot of weak areas ...but, we'll see the first time I fly it. LOL!! Since it has no landing gear, I'm fully expecting the underside silk to tear when it hits the grass. And that will ruin the whole purpose of building this plane .... practicing the finish for another airplane.

I'm going to try to keep the finish light, but I'm just not sure yet how well it will dope up. Its going to be three colors and I'm going to make mistakes with the trim. Been reading alot about the finishing touches .... and there seems to be a different technique for every builder.

Maybe it wont even make it off the bench ...

Looking Good on the finish Job , Heck of a build up on the stab/elev. I have only sewn hinges once but didn't have a problem with pulling through the wood , there not beauty's but work well .   Eric

The latest progress ..... glad to be getting back to this!

5 coats of clear dope .... and the fillets are done.  Alittle more prep work .... PAINT TIME!!

Larry, is that Superfill your using for fillets? Ken

Ken Cook wrote:            Larry, is that Superfill your using for fillets? Ken

Whatever it is.. I like the way it looks. Hope the painting goes well. It will definitely look sharp! I like the way the light catches the satin-smooth sanding job on the fuse.. all the way up to the firewall. That had to have taken a lot of time and patience.

Ken Cook wrote:            Larry, is that Superfill your using for fillets? Ken

Yes, it is SuperFill. Once I lightly sand the fillets, I'm going to brush a light layer of thinned epoxy over the fillets. I'm hoping this will stop some of the issues I've read about with dope and Superfill.

I'll give it all a final sanding, drill tiny pilot holes for the engine mount holes ..... and finally start painting.

roddie wrote:

Ken Cook wrote:            Larry, is that Superfill your using for fillets? Ken

Whatever it is.. I like the way it looks. Hope the painting goes well. It will definitely look sharp! I like the way the light catches the satin-smooth sanding job on the fuse.. all the way up to the firewall. That had to have taken a lot of time and patience.

Thanks Roddie!

This is usually where I start getting into trouble ... I can see the finished plane now, and I tend to start rushing it.

I need to go slow .... because from here on out is the reason I'm building this plane. It's a practice plane for the finish scheme I have planned for a Bob Hunt Prowler I have on the bench. I'm a long way from finishing that one ... the wing is 95% done, but the fuse I haven't touched.

I've really enjoyed building this Lil Jumping Bean ,,,, now if I can just transpose the image in my mind, to the plane at hand ...... LOL!!