DDragon
12-31-2007, 03:38 PM
I just received my 4 blade lightning head from RC-Experts so I thought I'd share my first impressions.
First off, I ordered the head ($99) and a Trex450 S Aluminum kit ($169.) the week of Christmas, they shipped the following day and it arrived today. Not bad considering there are a lot of holidays in between... it came from Hong Kong.
Now the head. First impressions... it a good quality head. Build well, although it is not CNC as stated. The parts are actually molded from CNC originals. I couldn't see a seam at first, but it is visible under the right lighting conditions. Still, as I mentioned, it's not really an issue since they are well finished (by hand?). My only concern is that I hope they used quality aluminum when pouring. However I'm not worried about the process, I used to race motorcycles in the 80's and a lot of stress bearing parts (triple clamps and head) are molded from alum using the same basic process.
Making the parts from a mold then finishing by hand is the only way they can keep the pricing down.
I did some measuring and it looks like a few things can be swamped out such as the main shaft for the titanium version by align (at a later time). The button top on the head appears to be machined as does the swash plate. Although if this project works, I may swap in an align swash plate after drilling an extra hole for the fifth ball joint.
The thing I like about this head is it's REALLY simple. As long as the grips don't break, I can probably make my own replacement parts on a lathe. Later down the road I think I'll see if Align feather shafts will fit. I didn't see any place to buy replacement parts... at $99 I can't see the point.
A word about the Trex450 S kit I bought, I got the cheapest I could find. I didn't want to gut my Trex 450se v2 for this experiment. I like alum so I didn't care that that was what I found.
BUT when I opened up the package I saw that they had swapped out the alum frame for a Silver Carbon Fiber frame... ok... it's not what I ordered. But that's ok... I'm doing a carbon fiber/ silver alum theme on this baby.
BTW... the only weakness I can see are the control rods, they are thinner than the stock align control rods and seem to be made of a weaker steel. I plan on getting some alum rod and using my lathe to made a set of rods that are more robust.
All in all, if you want to get into Multi-Blade. I think this is your best bet. At $99 you can take the money I saved and buy two more gyros.
I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes.
Deron
First off, I ordered the head ($99) and a Trex450 S Aluminum kit ($169.) the week of Christmas, they shipped the following day and it arrived today. Not bad considering there are a lot of holidays in between... it came from Hong Kong.
Now the head. First impressions... it a good quality head. Build well, although it is not CNC as stated. The parts are actually molded from CNC originals. I couldn't see a seam at first, but it is visible under the right lighting conditions. Still, as I mentioned, it's not really an issue since they are well finished (by hand?). My only concern is that I hope they used quality aluminum when pouring. However I'm not worried about the process, I used to race motorcycles in the 80's and a lot of stress bearing parts (triple clamps and head) are molded from alum using the same basic process.
Making the parts from a mold then finishing by hand is the only way they can keep the pricing down.
I did some measuring and it looks like a few things can be swamped out such as the main shaft for the titanium version by align (at a later time). The button top on the head appears to be machined as does the swash plate. Although if this project works, I may swap in an align swash plate after drilling an extra hole for the fifth ball joint.
The thing I like about this head is it's REALLY simple. As long as the grips don't break, I can probably make my own replacement parts on a lathe. Later down the road I think I'll see if Align feather shafts will fit. I didn't see any place to buy replacement parts... at $99 I can't see the point.
A word about the Trex450 S kit I bought, I got the cheapest I could find. I didn't want to gut my Trex 450se v2 for this experiment. I like alum so I didn't care that that was what I found.
BUT when I opened up the package I saw that they had swapped out the alum frame for a Silver Carbon Fiber frame... ok... it's not what I ordered. But that's ok... I'm doing a carbon fiber/ silver alum theme on this baby.
BTW... the only weakness I can see are the control rods, they are thinner than the stock align control rods and seem to be made of a weaker steel. I plan on getting some alum rod and using my lathe to made a set of rods that are more robust.
All in all, if you want to get into Multi-Blade. I think this is your best bet. At $99 you can take the money I saved and buy two more gyros.
I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes.
Deron