Super Dave
04-20-2004, 06:36 PM
Well on Friday I received my Quick EP 10 kit from Chuck www.chucksrc.com
This Kit seems to be aimed more for the experienced builder, because the instructions are really poor/ well not poor, but lacking enough detail for a novice to follow without any questions. Since I am a mechanical guy, I had no problem figuring out what I had to do and what parts went where.
basically there was only 4 bags of parts, and one of them had ALL the hardware in it.. so I layed everything out in groups of hardware type & size, then I started screwing the carbon frames together. this was a lot of fun. I had a pretty good nack for where stuff was supposed to go and only referenced the exploded diagram I down loaded to make sure I was going in the right direction. The book was really not all the helpful , it was basically done in a photo format. each step had an actual photo of the assembly in that step, but was not too clear as to where the parts go. some you could not see from the photo. I am used to using "exploded CAD drawings for each step" but my prior experience of building other kits helped me a lot. Already in my head I was thinking things like 90 degrees, and parallel /level swashplate. etc... the billet aluminum parts were really cool. I think they saved money by not going through a post cleansing/cleaning/deburring proccess. I found a ton of metal shavings on every aluminum piece and spent about 2 hours making sure I got every aluminum fleck I could find off of the bearing races & things.. This really did not bother me because I know that I were to have those parts machined myself would cost well over the price of the entire heli kit. so a little post cleaning really was not a bother. I'd rather have em come this way then spend the extra money on the kit. The fit was excellent !!!.. everything bolted down to where it should with no slop or mis alignment. the frame is phenomenally rigid and pretty darn light. and just looks COOL. The motor mount is a beautiful piece of work and makes installing/removing the motor a breeze. the only piece of aluminum that I am not sure if I really like it or really dislike it is the tail drive-shaft gear. I am impressed that it was carved from billet and is very intricate, but was severely burred. If I would not have payed attention and just installed it,, it would have killed the belt probably in the first 2 minutes of running. so I spent about 30 minutes with my trusty diamond file and ground it to perfection.
The tail boom as a very nice billet end cap press fit onto the end for attachment of the tail gear box. everything is very smooooooth and no-slop. also the billet mixing arms bolted down to the
washout base perfectly with absolutely ZERO slop and NO binding, this is the first time I have assembled an alloy/ballbearing piece for a heli that was perfect !!!. very cool. I really like the 8 mm mainshaft. more robust than the ECO's 6mm shaft. The Alloy swash is a nice piece but I am disappointed in the slight amount of slop in the swashball, I could probably move the swashball about .030" within it's race. I will look into a different swash later or figure a way to reduce the slop, I think I can press one of the races in a little further, not sure yet. The M3 cap screws are of a lower quality, I actually had 3 M3 cap screws that had the HEX stamped off to the size, and could not get my allen wrench into it.. (no-biggy, I got lots of hardware) The blade grip and Head are VERY nice. the only thing I would change on the head is that it has bushings instead of bearings for the flybar pivot. they were brass though. I did not take any pics, because the pics on Quicks website say it all. I don't have any main blades yet, and still need a motor/controller for it. I also will get the steel gear because the main gear is going to eat the aluminum pinion for lunch.
overall this is the nicest heli kit I have assembled. and if the low price is the reason for the shotty instructions, then that's fine with me, these birds are not rocket science..... and even comes with a nice quallity painted Glass Cannopy !!
and the Carbon fiber parts were of very good quallity as well. I kind of like the carbon landing gear but am worried that continued use on hard surfaces such as cement may de-laminate the carbon after a while. I may slice a rubber hose down the middle and glue it to the bottom of the skids.
I'll write back once I get this bird in the air.
:D
This Kit seems to be aimed more for the experienced builder, because the instructions are really poor/ well not poor, but lacking enough detail for a novice to follow without any questions. Since I am a mechanical guy, I had no problem figuring out what I had to do and what parts went where.
basically there was only 4 bags of parts, and one of them had ALL the hardware in it.. so I layed everything out in groups of hardware type & size, then I started screwing the carbon frames together. this was a lot of fun. I had a pretty good nack for where stuff was supposed to go and only referenced the exploded diagram I down loaded to make sure I was going in the right direction. The book was really not all the helpful , it was basically done in a photo format. each step had an actual photo of the assembly in that step, but was not too clear as to where the parts go. some you could not see from the photo. I am used to using "exploded CAD drawings for each step" but my prior experience of building other kits helped me a lot. Already in my head I was thinking things like 90 degrees, and parallel /level swashplate. etc... the billet aluminum parts were really cool. I think they saved money by not going through a post cleansing/cleaning/deburring proccess. I found a ton of metal shavings on every aluminum piece and spent about 2 hours making sure I got every aluminum fleck I could find off of the bearing races & things.. This really did not bother me because I know that I were to have those parts machined myself would cost well over the price of the entire heli kit. so a little post cleaning really was not a bother. I'd rather have em come this way then spend the extra money on the kit. The fit was excellent !!!.. everything bolted down to where it should with no slop or mis alignment. the frame is phenomenally rigid and pretty darn light. and just looks COOL. The motor mount is a beautiful piece of work and makes installing/removing the motor a breeze. the only piece of aluminum that I am not sure if I really like it or really dislike it is the tail drive-shaft gear. I am impressed that it was carved from billet and is very intricate, but was severely burred. If I would not have payed attention and just installed it,, it would have killed the belt probably in the first 2 minutes of running. so I spent about 30 minutes with my trusty diamond file and ground it to perfection.
The tail boom as a very nice billet end cap press fit onto the end for attachment of the tail gear box. everything is very smooooooth and no-slop. also the billet mixing arms bolted down to the
washout base perfectly with absolutely ZERO slop and NO binding, this is the first time I have assembled an alloy/ballbearing piece for a heli that was perfect !!!. very cool. I really like the 8 mm mainshaft. more robust than the ECO's 6mm shaft. The Alloy swash is a nice piece but I am disappointed in the slight amount of slop in the swashball, I could probably move the swashball about .030" within it's race. I will look into a different swash later or figure a way to reduce the slop, I think I can press one of the races in a little further, not sure yet. The M3 cap screws are of a lower quality, I actually had 3 M3 cap screws that had the HEX stamped off to the size, and could not get my allen wrench into it.. (no-biggy, I got lots of hardware) The blade grip and Head are VERY nice. the only thing I would change on the head is that it has bushings instead of bearings for the flybar pivot. they were brass though. I did not take any pics, because the pics on Quicks website say it all. I don't have any main blades yet, and still need a motor/controller for it. I also will get the steel gear because the main gear is going to eat the aluminum pinion for lunch.
overall this is the nicest heli kit I have assembled. and if the low price is the reason for the shotty instructions, then that's fine with me, these birds are not rocket science..... and even comes with a nice quallity painted Glass Cannopy !!
and the Carbon fiber parts were of very good quallity as well. I kind of like the carbon landing gear but am worried that continued use on hard surfaces such as cement may de-laminate the carbon after a while. I may slice a rubber hose down the middle and glue it to the bottom of the skids.
I'll write back once I get this bird in the air.
:D