DHC-2 Beaver Floats Kit Question

[calmflier]

Hello!

I'm new to the group, and I'm building the laser-cut Guillows Beaver kit. I purchased the Guillows floats to go with it and I'm hoping to get advice from people about the best way to complete the floats.

Specifically, the parts include stringers and formers for everything on the floats except for the front tips of the floats, and the instructions simply say to "carve" the fronts from "spare balsa block". I"m wondering about the best way to achieve decent looking results and uniformly consistent for each float?

I've thought about, as an alternative to carving from solid balsa block, cutting out "extensions" of the plan forms that would follow the curve lines down to the "ends", and covering them with thin cardboard or leftover vacform plastic? Any ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated -

Don (calmflier)

[heywooood]

I’m surprised no one answered this question yet..so let me try.
I used this kit on my DH2c and on my Dumas Stinson SR-10 Reliant.
The use of a balsa block is not difficult, and you dont really have to ‘carve’ them at all.
I bought a bag of various sized balsa blocks from a hobby shop but you can buy them from Guillow too.
Just first cut from these larger blocks a pair of blocks that are large enough to cover the first former completely with about 1/8” overhang on all sides - and long enough to make a proper nose for the floats. Compare it to the drawing and make sure it covers the entire shaded area representing the ‘nose block’
You can see each one needs 5 sides. First decide on the ‘top’ or ‘deck’ side and just line it up with the top of the first former on each float. *you must have the woodgrain of the block running from nose to tail and NOT vertically*
Once your loose block is aligned properly just trace the outline of the first former onto the side of the block you will be gluing to it - making sure you have the woodgrain running nose to tail. Then - leaving a 1/8” overhang - slice the other four sides from the back of your block using the former outline you traced as a guide. Since you are cutting ‘with the grain’ its easy using an xacto knife but you have to be careful. Dont try to make one cut per side but rather make several small slices and take off more material toward the nose. Not too much though.
Once you have a suitable nose shaped block glue it onto the float - the rest will be done by sanding with a sanding block when you sand your floats completely to shape using a sanding block.

[kittyfritters]

Heywooood,

Good answer. The only thing I do differently is to glue the appropriate sized block directly to the front of the assembled float and carve and sand in place. Each to their own.

KF

[Bill Gaylord]

I glued sheet balsa to the tips starting at the front former, forming the tip shape as accurately as possible, and then sculpting the tips. Basically built up construction. If you can build the initial structure close to ideal, 1/8" sheet balsa should easily provide enough material to sculpt perfect tips from, without sanding too thin. I didn't order the float parts set, and cut the parts from the templates included on the model plan. The formers were cut from 1/32" sheet balsa, keeping the weight low.

[Bill Gaylord]

One more photo, since I believe 3 per post is the limit.

[heywooood]

yes - I poorly explained how I do this - so here is a vid from my channel that shows exactly how I do it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agg8EXjcA1U&t=7s

second video shows the nose block of the completely infilled float sanded to final shape and conformity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEcTeVu17RA&t=8s

also note that you do not have to infill the float structures to handle the nose blocks this way - once the floats are framed you can sand the blocks to conform to the shape of the float regardless - you do have to
be a bit more careful not to sand too much (if at all) into the framework though, and focus just on the block - so as not to make the frames too fragile or compromise the stringers near the nose of the floats