owl182

Many years ago I bought a set of electric retracts at a swap meet- they seemed huge to me at the time. I believe they were home made. I don't remember exactly why I'd bought them-other than the fact I thought they were really neat. Perhaps someone upstairs knew I might need them for the Panther project. They're 2 1/4" wide (3.5" including the mounting flange) and 6 3/4" long including the motor. The strut in the photo is 7/8" wide by 12" long. There is a battery pack with deans plug and they work from the switch which was activated with a ball link from a servo. It sold with the battery pack and charger. They work every time I flip the switch-unlike some of my air driven retracts I bought over the years. I may be able to replicate a 3rd unit for the nose gear-I have some machining abilities and equipment.

John A

jofunk

I started to line up the wing plug ins and landing gear plates for the panther. I am going to do it a little different and jig up f-9 and f-10 off the crutch and once I have the plug ins in and the gear plates in and it all tied together it will go on the crutch as a single unit. The plug ins that Vladimir made are very nice. He made four for each airplane in the project, thats 20 all together, thanks Vladimir! I think doing it this way might be a little easier because there are two plug ins for each wing they must be parallel from the front view and from the top view, If they are out of wack in either view you will have a hard time plugging the wing in. It also seems that my Old B-25 gear will fit in with a little minor adjusting. It looks like it will be on its gear soon...... well at least f-9 and f-10 will be.

owl182

Looks good so far Joe. I met up at John R's tonight and helped install more sheeting. I also started blocking (rounding and smoothing) the top half of the model. 60 grit paper will smooth anything that's high. I brought my gear over and showed John and Dennis how they operated with the battery and they worked just fine. I'll need to make a nose gear retract to complete the set.

The intakes are ready for some epoxy paint so maybe I can lay up some intakes next week some time. Wax and buff,wax and buff, wax and buff....
I worked some more on the removable nose assy and it's coming along. I'm hoping to pull a mold from it soon.

Where did you get the bars that insert into the plugin's and how much did they cost?

John A

jofunk

Hi John I got the aluminnum at Metals Supermarkets 9012 S. Thomas st. Bridgeview Il. 708-599-8605. It is aluminum flat stock 6061 t6 .188x1.000. It cost $1.50 a foot. Call them first before you go so they can make sure to have it in stock for you. That address is back behind the View where we go to eat.

jofunk

Well I cut the wing plan views for the remaining three Panthers. John Roth and I went over to Bob Korans house monday because he said he had a bunch of foam he would give away to someone that could use it. He said it came out of a mountain demo. at the University of Chicago a few years ago. The foam was o.k. but there weren't many clean straight edges, and alot of it must have been glued together with urathane glue. No straight edges means no where to pin on guides to cut the plan view. So I drew the plan view anywhere I could on the block clamped two straight edges to the sides of the work bench, lined up the block with a long ruler, and then just ran the wire down the straight edges. It went pretty good. This is the way to go if you are going to do alot of cutting, you just need a bow that is wider than the table. Out of the cut offs there was enough to get some electric gremlin plan views for indoor flying this winter. After all that there was plenty of scrap.

owl182

Hey Joe-
I shot the epoxy paint on the intakes like I'd wanted and they look pretty good. They'll need to cure for a few days before buffing and waxing.

I brought some more 1/8" wood over to John R's and hopefully next week we'll get some more work completed on the second Panther fuse. I've been working the nose cone section and had to regrind some high ridges which showed up under direct sunlight with the surface wetted-round smoothly curved sections take patience to make. It was initially a planked section with a foam block for the nose tip. My sanding block and artistic license allowed me to make the correct shape. 4 layers of heavy cloth sanded in between made a hard surface suitable for a plug. I had it primed and sanded twice before the redo but now I'm happy with it. A gloss paint scheme would not allow anything other than perfection on the surface. I'll be putting surface details onto the plug which will show up in the mold. Gun ports, panels, those sorts of things. The guns on my first Zirolli Panther were a pain and now I'll have another go at it-only much larger gun ports. Exactly what diameter is a 1/4 scale gun port exit on a Panther? More research needed again!

John R wasn't sure the foam blocks were wide enough for the Panther wings but it sounds like they were?
Maybe we can get together soon to cut the wing profiles on those foam blanks-

John A

That US Composite resin sure works well for the price.

jroth

My Feedback: (60)

I want to order the wood and CA glue today, please let me know what you want me to order.

Joe, Thanks for cutting the foam, it looks really good!

John, I am sure the inlets will be nice, but the nose section with detail in the mold will be special!

Thanks for taking the time to keep us moving along, I did some minor sanding on the Fuselage last night.

John

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

Pretty sure they are Likes Line retracts. Henry Likes makes them, and I am pretty sure he is still in business. Do some searching in the Warbird section and you will probably find his contact information.

owl182

Hi Jeff-
They could indeed be some early versions of Henry's gear. I was amazed at the mudslinging going on in many of the retract posts concerning retract postings-who's better, etc... Many of the manufacturers and their reps cruise the sites. Perhaps this is a good thing so that they can improve upon the weak links in their products. Modelers tend to pay a premium for these devices due to such a small market. I did see one post worried about electric retracts burning up the servo wiring if the gear jams for some reason. I guess no one thought of installing a small properly sized fuse in the drive motor circuit. Another mentioned not liking micro switches-I work with them all the time on equipment I service and find them very reliable. They don't have lines that get pinched, go brittle, or leak around the nipples, or kink on tight bends. One can pick on any system I guess. Weight is not a problem on such a large model as this. Would I install these on an 80" model, no way. I think I will definitely try the gear and see how they hold up. I have not had any retracts where the scissors or bushings didn't get sloppy from use, or the struts didn't have any side play. This is a large model and I'm sure there will be some shortcoming from the gear but I will deal with it logically and improve the gear if need be. I hate tracking down air leaks so I'm ok with charging a small battery pack. You only cycle the gear for 6-8 seconds up then 6-8 seconds down per flight. Can only imagine how long a 123 battery would last under this use- a very long time on one charge. Another post mentioned 6061T6 was not considered structural aluminum-it's still pretty tough (some aluminum I find is soft) unless you really blow your landing. I will need to assemble one more unit or find one for sale somewhere-The Likes Line link is a dead one so looks like I'll be in my metal shop for awhile.

John A

doubledcom

My Feedback: (49)

John,
Not sure what website you went to, but I found the Like Line site at www.thelikesline.com. It appears that he may still be in business, however there is no online ordering. His address and phone number are listed on the site, so maybe give him a call and see. Just FYI.
Dennis

owl182

Thanks Dennis you have a working link. I've been away at the University of Illinois for a couple days visiting my daughter so I haven't work on any Panther stuff. If it is too much trouble to make that retract for the nose I might be able to buy it thru this contact.

Thanks, John A

jofunk

I finished up building the box that will take the wing plug ins and the landing gear plates. I just built what looks like it will work, It's Ziroli f-9 and f -10 with Joe F. plates, supports ,and plug in mounting locations. I also took the # 5 and# 6 set of hoz. stabs and spread some lite filler on the tips where the slow moving wire burns a little more of the foam away. I also put some tips on my hoz. stabs. It is just a lite ply plan view that I white glued on then it will get back filled with whatever scrap balsa I have laying around. It will then be sanded to shape. It's the way you do it when you don't have nice big chunks of balsa around for tips. I also started goofing around Making some foam tip tanks. The cylinder was cut out of a block of foam using some cardboard templates. then I drew on some red rlngs to what I thought looked right to get rid of most of the foam. then I used a smaller template at the nose and a washer at the back and free hand rough cut from the template to the red line. To get from a block of foam to a rough cut tip tank only took about 20 minutes. It was no big deal.

jofunk

Monday all the boys came over to the B site for a meeting of the minds. John A and I cut the airfoils for the remaining three Panthers. Vladimir worked on landing gear plates and wing mount locations. He made some templates and with his router made extra sets of what he was working on for a few more airplanes. We had a special guest stop by who heard about the project and wanted to take a look to see what was going on, Mr Hal Parenti. Hal has built and flown the Ziroli Panther So Bill J. sat with Hal and picked his brain for a while. Its not bad to have one of the top scratch builders and designers in our hobby stop by to spend some time.

jofunk

Last Wednsday Mr. Fun came over at 10 P.M. to take some measurments to make his hoz. stab removable. I was finishing installing new floors in the house so all I did was was watch him and drink a few beers till 2 A.M.. He was also working on making a nose gear but that is super secret stuff till he posts some pictures. This past Monday Mr. Fun and Dennis D. came over to work on building up a verticle fin. they also made an extra set of parts for John Roths plane since he is building his like Mr. Funs. I donated a set of Yellow aircraft wing plug ins to them and Mr. Fun is going to design a plug in for the verticle so it can be removable. I finaly got my bulkheads stood up and on the crutch along with the landing gear box. Now I need to string it and get some sheeting on it to catch up to those guys.

Avaiojet

Great Thread and a great build.

I know your well into your build, however, I have a great set of plans, four larg sheets in fact, well detailed and nicly drawn.

Offered by Giant Jets of years gone buy? Possibly?

I purchased them in 1992, shipping date is still on the box.

Like day one condition.

Could they be of some help to you?

jofunk

Hey Charles I think we are pretty far along the way with what we have.

I pretty much finished stringing the top and then I went along and put a stringer between all the existing stringer locations to stiffen things up. I went along with a hack saw blade to make a slice and then cut a notch with a 1/8 grout bit. the 1/8 stringer fits nice and snug in the notch. This is the same thing I did when I blew up Gillows outlines to make a 100" long F-16 (that's a yard stick in front of the F-16). For the hatch I moved the end from f-12 to F-11 since it doesn't need to be so long. I just made my self an f-11-A to end the hatch. For the sides of the hatch I egg crated two pieces of lite ply into the bulk heads with a little gap between them so I can cut it out after it is sheeted. I also installed some triangle stock to lock it all in place. As for f-5A&B the front of the hatch, it didn't fit so well and I need to do a little more grinding to get them flush with the outside of the fuse. when that is done I can start with some sheeting.

jofunk

Dennis, Mr. Fun( John A.), Vladimir, Bill, And Hal came over monday night. Since there is no canopy available Hal gave us a demo. on how he makes plugs and vac u forms canopys. He showed us his process with what he used to make his Fireball canopy. Hal was also kind enough to offer to help us with this process. John and Dennis worked on a rudder and made some duplicate parts for John Roths Panther. It was half building and half designing since John A. is making his tail removable, and John R. is going to do the same. The upper and lower rudder needs to unplug when the tail comes off. So the night was a little quack, quack, quack, design, design, build.

hooker53

My Feedback: (106)

Man I wish you had done a video on that canopy exposition. Looking good in that build.

jofunk

Monday Mr. Fun, Al, Dennis, And Bill came over to do a little work. They worked a little more on the scale rudder shape. Mr. Fun worked on his verticle and made skins for his hoz. stab. He is going to lay some fiberglass under the balsa to make the stab more rigid due to its large span (48"). I sheeted the top of my plane and the guys helped me flip it over so I can start working on the bottom. The first thing to do is build a structure for the nose gear. It needs something sturdy since the bulk heads are 1/8th lite ply.

jofunk

Hal Parenti came over and showed us his Fireball plug he made for the canopy. Dennis then sat and picked Hals brain for a while. Mr Fun sheeted and bagged his stab,installed a leading edge, and alligned the spars in it. John also showed us a finished intake he pulled off his plug. John, Dennis, and Vladimir waxed the plugs again and sprayed them with PVA mold release to prepare them to lay up another set of intakes. I installed the nose box in the front of the plane that incorporates the nose gear structure and mounting plate and put in the fuel tank floor. I also made a template that will be F-13 A&B so I can seperate it there to access the engine F-14 was too far back to seperate it there.

jofunk

Not much is getting done with the holidays upon us. John A. and Dennis came over last night to do a few things. John pulled another set of intakes off the plugs he made. This set has grey primer on the inside. He also worked on hingeing his elevators. I finally got around to putting the stringers on the bottom of my fuse. I would like to get some sheeting on the bottom so I can bring what I have done to our Club meeting next Wednesday night. The meeting should be interesting with five quarter scale Panthers there in various stages of their build. And we will all see how each of us is doing things.

jofunk

Monday John A. and Dennis came over with Johns fuse. They set it up, put the tank floor in, put the nose box floor in, and got some stringers on the bottom. They also started to figure out where the landing gear are going to go. I put some sheeting on the bottom of mine. I was able to use some bigger sheets because I wasn't afraid to push on the fuse as much. When I got enough on to make the fuse stiff, I flipped it over on its wheels. at this point it is very nose heavy but that will change once the tail is on.

jofunk

John A. and Dennis started to sheet the bottom of Johns airplane after thet finished up with the stringers. John also did some work on his fiberglass nose plug. Bill and Hal parenti started to make templates of Hals 72' panther so he can blow them up to make a plug and form some larger canopys. I started to work on building my intakes and installing F-S 1. I also started to make a foam nose for my plane. It will be removable but not as big as Johns Nose. I also threw in a picture of my table after I took the plane off of it, what a mess. We also had four of the five airplanes at our club meeting on Wednesday. you can see those pix. at www.palosrc.com.

jofunk

is this site working

doubledcom

My Feedback: (49)

Not very well. Half our pictures gone. Anyone at RCU out there....please fix these forums.