The engines arrived a couple of weeks ago, in fact just after the previous update was posted. They look really good and give a solid impression:

I especially like how they can be ‘reverse mounted’, which makes construction of the nacelles easier and lighter.

But that is not all I have done since then, the wood was ordered and has arrived. I was not too happy about the packaging of the wood, but everything is at least usable, and only 1 piece does have a really annoying ‘ding’. The quality looks good.

I also had a piece of stainless steel cut into pieces of 2x2x4cm. These are nice heavy (and have right-angles) blocks that I can use to fix things into place while the glue cures/dries. This instead of having to use needles like I have done in previous projects. I quite dislike needles and hope that the steel blocks will make a difference.

One more thing I did was building a new work-table. The old one was too small, and not perfectly flat. The new one is big enough to build the main wing in 1 piece and has an excellent “flatness”. What I did was taking a big sheet of plywood of 2.44x1.22m and 18mm thickness. I had the shop saw off several small stripes from the side and used these to reinforce the bottom such that it does not flex. Btw the whole things is glued, no screws or nails. And as the reflection shows, the top is painted as well. Really smooth…

I put a Turmeric on top for scale, the Turmeric has a span of 1.5m. The table is now 2.44x0.6m. I also made it much higher than usual (ca 95cm), so most of the work can be done without having to bend over. Very convenient. The bottom reinforcements can be seen (looking like dual-jet exhausts) as well as the wheels that I put on one end. The table is quite heavy, so it is not possible to lift and manipulate it on my own. The wheels allow me to lift one end, remove a strut and put it on the wheels. Then I can lift the other end off the remaining strut, and wheel the table to another place and repeat the process in reverse.

The table itself rests on 3 points, so there are no torsion forces on it. There is only little space between the table and the struts to minimize the possibility of tipping.

Next up is finishing my current build (a Thermy-3). The structural work is done, but I need to finish it up on the servo’s, engine and the covering. Given that I have other stuff to do as well, it may take another month or so before I can report on the first cut for the CL-415.