How to cut a tapered shoulder?

Hi,

Quite busy at the moment but I have decided to have a go at making a mini project for an Airfix kit to make a base out of nylon for an aircraft.(An F86 Sabre swept wing, incase you're wondering)

It will consist of a large round base and a shaft to make it look as though it were suspended in flight rather than parked on a runway so to speak. The shaft will have a small step that will connect to a drilled hole in the plane.

However, I don't want the step to be square, so that the plane is parallel to the horizon, would look rather boring. So I want the step to be lop sided so that the plane looks as though it's banking off to one side, to give it a sense of movement.

This seems like a slightly peculiar operating challenge to cut accurately so i'm wondering if anyone has done it before.

Michael W

Just as an example to help you understand;

Turn end square and drill a hole the dia of your spigot.

Cut end of stand to desired angle

Loctite bit of rod into the hole

You now have a spigot with an angled shoulder.

Edited By JasonB on 27/02/2017 12:36:32

Hi Michael,

So what does the angled shoulder achieve?

Tony

Meets the fuslarge at a matching angle so you don't get a nasty looking gap on one side

Thanks, yeah the more I thought about it I realized that it's practically outside the spectrum of a single turning operation. So i'll do as you say and fabricate the two bits together.

I don't think i'll be able to Loctite it (I heard it doesn't like sticking to plastics!) but the thread doesn't need to be fixed so long as it's secured.

Also for Tony, The panels of the plane itself are not thick enough to accommodate an angled hole, so it'll have to be down to the stand to set the angle.

I would also like to be able to dismantle it from the base if I need to so I don't want to glue it down either.

Thanks again for the advice.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/02/2017 13:30:22

Surely if you use the stand that you have ticked, the plane will still sit horizontally, due to the spigot being at 90 degrees to the floor.

If you need an angled shoulder for the plane to sit on then the spigot will need to be square to the angle.

May need to insert pin at an angle using Jason's method, per No. 2 in sketch

To fit the body a bit better...

John

Yep, I think that's cracked it, I suppose method 1 could distort the shape of the hole so option 2 would make for a better fit and help keep the hole snug to the pin.

Thanks.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/02/2017 13:51:00

If the hole was drilled into the plane at and angle then option 1 would be OK. But you have now mentioned a screw and that would need drilling as per Journyman's option 2 to work.

Edited By John Stevenson on 27/02/2017 15:03:29

Why not mount the shaft on a ball socket. that way you could change the orientation of the model to suit your mood. i.e nose up when you are happy and the opposite when you are not.

I'm with JS. I used the bent shaft method to mount Spitfire and Hurricane models on a single base and gave an appearance of a close formation banked turn. The bend was close to the top.

I also made a small top hat plug to fit in the aircraft fuselage to add strength where the shaft fitted. Sorry no pictures, it was a few years ago.

Jim

Since the plastic is thin it may be an idea to inject some filler into the area of the hole then re-drill the hole.

Get a piece of cotton about 18" long, tie one end around the nose, the other end around the tail. Fix the cotton to a ceiling with a drawing pin. Set pitch, bank and whatever else (you'll have to imagine yaw) - job done!

Ed.

I once saw a transparent rod poked up the jet exhaust so it looked a bit like a 'vapour trail'.

What about using a nice long spring, give it a flick and then watch the plane "fly" around.

That is cruel !!

Bats are a protected species &I bet you would go purple if someone shoved a 4 ft spring ........

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 28/02/2017 08:18:54

I had a cricket bat once, Damn thing would not fly at all.......