Steel frame road-bike for about a "grand", any suggestions?

[Mike Latondress]

A Muzi <[email protected]> wrote in news:105nge7isl2ki40
@corp.supernews.com:

>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model planes were
>>>balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in place with dope.
>>
> Rick Onanian wrote:
>> You used illicit drugs to hold your model planes
>> together?
>
> Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper tight over the
> wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
> amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
> planes then?
>

What I remember is breaking my index finger flip starting a
Fox 50 on a control line combat plane...hurt like hell.

 

[carlfogel]

Originally posted by A Muzi
> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model planes were
>>balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in place with dope.
>
Rick Onanian wrote:
> You used illicit drugs to hold your model planes together?

Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper tight over the
wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
planes then?

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1
April, 1971

Dear Andrew,

My father, ever anxious to hang ten on the crest of
high tech, built a radio-controlled high-wing monoplane
in the early 1960's. The yellow body was fairly sturdy,
but the white wing was covered with doped fabric and
rarely survived landings intact on windy days.

For convenient transportation, the four-foot wing was
removable and was attached to stout wooden pegs
on the fuselage by impressive, criss-crossed rubber
bands.

The rubber bands were also touted as a safety feature,
intended to let the wing come off or at least absorb some
shock, but on windy days the stiff doped fabric of the wing
rarely survived landings intact.

Apart from a genetic fascination with bizarre toys,
my father's interest may have been sparked by
the incongruity of playing with such a fragile and
tiny doped wing. He spent the war of the Pacific
as a flight engineer in 4-engine Navy flying boats,
whose wings were thick enough for him to work
on the engines in flight.

Carl Fogel

 

[Tom Sherman]

Rick Onanian wrote:

> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model planes were
>>balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in place with dope.
>
>
> You used illicit drugs to hold your model planes together?

<http://www.superflite.com/dope.html> <http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/300/pdf/1m-
ch2_4.pdf>

--
Tom Sherman - Quad Cities (Illinois Side)

 

[John Dacey]

" Nihil aliud est ebrietas quam voluntaria insania. - Seneca
On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi <[email protected]>
wrote:

>>>Aluminum: good enough for Boeing, good enough for me.
>
>Phil Brown wrote:
>> Plywood: Good enough for DeHaviland, good enough for me.
>
>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model planes were
>balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in place with dope.

Dope: Good enough for Howard Hughes. . .

-------------------------------
John Dacey Business Cycles, Miami, Florida
http://www.businesscycles.com Now in our twenty-first year.
Our catalog of track equipment: eighth year online
-------------------------------

 

[bball]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:59:51 -0600, A Muzi <[email protected]>
wrote:

>> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model planes were
>>>balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in place with dope.
>>
>Rick Onanian wrote:
>> You used illicit drugs to hold your model planes
>> together?
>
>Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper tight over the
>wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
>amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
>planes then?

---------------

I built a bunch of them of ordinary quality, but found that
doping the silkspan often sagged the material a bit -- what
a disappointment! Common was to spray a water mist & dry to
shrink the fabric before doping. Once, going to extremes, I
sprayed a P-47 Thunderbolt and dried the model in an oven --
curled up the wings

Anyone who's built a few stick-models seems to carry through
some marvel of the beauty, strength, lightness -- a
philosophical foundation appreciated by cyclists too. I
submit the accelerated decline of modern civilization began
with the generations of youngsters (boomers) slapping
together molded plastic pieces -- certainly the precurser to
SUVs and cellphones. (Just an aside here)

Perhaps we'll start a winter competition of stick models to
supplement activity during a slackened riding season.

bball

 

[A Muzi]

>>>On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:02:29 -0600, A Muzi <[email protected]>
>>>wrote:
>>>>And in that vein. . . When I was young, model
>>>>planes were balsa covered in silkspan shrunk in
>>>>place with dope.

>>Rick Onanian wrote:
>>>You used illicit drugs to hold your model planes
>>>together?

(am)>>Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper
tight over the
>>wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
>>amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
>>planes then?

[email protected] wrote:
> I built a bunch of them of ordinary quality, but found
> that doping the silkspan often sagged the material a bit
> -- what a disappointment! Common was to spray a water mist
> & dry to shrink the fabric before doping. Once, going to
> extremes, I sprayed a P-47 Thunderbolt and dried the model
> in an oven -- curled up the wings
>
> Anyone who's built a few stick-models seems to carry
> through some marvel of the beauty, strength, lightness --
> a philosophical foundation appreciated by cyclists too. I
> submit the accelerated decline of modern civilization
> began with the generations of youngsters (boomers)
> slapping together molded plastic pieces -- certainly the
> precurser to SUVs and cellphones. (Just an aside here)
>
> Perhaps we'll start a winter competition of stick models
> to supplement activity during a slackened riding season.

Well, there's a small opportunity to turn this thread back
to bicycles. Silkspan is indeed soaked in water , applied
snug and then shrunk in place with airplane dope.

Leather covers for handlebars ( you may recall the beautiful
Italian Almarc products) are water-soaked , laced with a
double thread like a baseball and then shrunk in place with
a generous amount of alcohol. Once shrunk in place the
covers don't shift even during an out of saddle effort.

Both processes rely on water to swell or stretch the
material and then something to draw out the water, shrinking
the piece.
--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1
April, 1971

 

[Jim Adney]

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:59:51 -0600 A Muzi <[email protected]> wrote:

>Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper tight over the
>wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
>amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
>planes then?

Sure, you had to choose between Silkspan and Nylonspan
cloth, glue it on the wings, and then paint the whole thing
with "hot fuel proof dope." The "dope" would shrink the
cloth into a perfect fit.

I think we used the dope to glue the fabric in place, also,
but that was a LONG time ago, and my memory is not
completely clear on that part.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney [email protected] Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

 

[Dave]

Jim Adney wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:59:51 -0600 A Muzi
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Wing fabric dope shrinks the silkspan paper tight over the
>>wing's frame. It's some type of lacquer with a generous
>>amount of semantic potential thrown in . Anyone else build
>>planes then?
>
>
> Sure, you had to choose between Silkspan and Nylonspan
> cloth, glue it on the wings, and then paint the whole
> thing with "hot fuel proof dope." The "dope" would shrink
> the cloth into a perfect fit.
>
> I think we used the dope to glue the fabric in place,
> also, but that was a LONG time ago, and my memory is not
> completely clear on that part.

Yep, the fabric or tisue was glued in place with the dope
then sprayed with water to shrink it tight then doped to
tighten and seal it.

Brings back "fond" memories of the combat plane I built from
a kit. My Dad brought home real aircraft linen and dope and
I used that. Big mistake--combat planes had short noses and
only slightly longer tails to go with a fairly broad wing
chord. That thing turned out so heavy that even with a large
lead bar screwed to the engine bolts it was tail heavy. Not
good for any model (or real) plane.

The good old days!

-=Dave=-