John Slade is up for the week helping me with the complex wing steps. That's not to say this chapter can't be done alone, but extra help sure makes the time go faster, especially if that help has made a wing him/herself. Hot-wiring does really take two people. I've heard of people cutting solo, using supports and other assistants to help hold the hot-wire cutting. I think it would be very challenging to get good, consistent cuts that way.
Making Templates. I'm bringing John Slade up to help me with hot-wiring cores and some other tricky steps. To save time, I'm preparing all of my templates at once. To make them, I bought the duplicate M drawings set from Aircraft Spruce, so I don't need to trace anything. I first rough cut the templates close to their lines. Then I spray melamine sheets with 3M adhesive and stick on the templates. I use a bandsaw to cut close to the lines, then a sander to finish the job. The job takes a while for each template, but it produces good results. If you follow this method, note that one template on the duplicate M drawing set has a slight offset in it that you'll want to correct. Other than that, it's straightforward work, just time consuming.
We had some extra setup time because I saved some money. Wicks had a fire sale on foam, which normally runs $21 to $41 depending on block size. The stuff I bought was only $4.50 per block, a huge cost reduction, but it was only available in the smaller (7x14x41) size. To make up the difference, I bought 25 blocks, and we're cutting blocks to add to the ends of others. It adds time, and time is indeed valuable, but I'm happy we did this. The extra work with the blocks gave me time to adjust to block layout and hot-wiring, so I was much more prepared (and had gotten used to handling the saw) when it came time to do an actual airfoil cut. It wasn't really much extra work - just squaring the ends, and joining blocks to make them longer. The 3M 77 spray adhesive worked great here. Note to others - make sure your block faces are very clean when you join them. Even a slight amount of dust can prevent a good adhesive bond.
We learned a lot doing the hot-wiring steps, but we produced some absolutely beautiful cores. I've never seen anybody else's, but John seemed fairly impressed, and they look laser cut, so I'm happy. We used a couple of tricks that made the job even better, but there isn't room to document them here, so I wrote up a Hot Wire Guide to document them.
As part of this step, I finally got a chance to meet Stew Joslin, who has plans #1287. He lives in Coventry, CT, just three towns away from where I started my own build (Stafford Springs). Somehow before I moved we never had the chance to connect, but he was able to come down and meet John and I Friday night. It was good to have him, because we did the rest of the hotwiring job, and the micro bonding of the various bits and pieces to make the FC[1-5] cores, and the extra pair of hands was appreciated.
Do you live in the Northeast? I'm trying to organize local builders from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Please use the link below to get in touch with me - I'd like to set up a fly-in, a build day, or something else. Builders in California, Texas, Florida, and the Midwest are much more organized than we are.