The First Pancake
- Category:
- Projects
- Author:
- Ohad S. Farkash
- Date:
- 09/18/2024
"Pancake" mid-launch during Wings Over Springs 2024.
I recently stumbled on the videos of a youtuber called NumaVIG. Enchanted by all that maticulous craftsmanship, I decided it was time to sharpen a new set of skills. I was particularly interested in mastering the art of working with foam. The appeal being that it is cheap and easy to repair.
Materials
Aquiring equivilent materials was the first major hurdle. NumaVIG has access to very different materials than I, being that he's in Russia, and I am in the USA. That means different manufacturers, standards, and systems of measure. The obvious solution is to find close equivilents, however, in the US we have a seriously limited selection.
Foam
Practically, I have access to only one kind of foam - Adams Readi-Board - AKA Dolar Tree Foam (DTF). This is nothing new, and most of the budget hobby community has followed the same course. There are certain properties which make DTF the primary choice.
Thickness
DTF is 4.2mm (paper removed), compared to the 3mm XPS used in the videos. The foam weight of the 1st Pancake total about 120g. Assuming that DTF is roughly the same desity, we can calculate just how much extra weight is being added to my model:
\frac{ 120\text{g} }{ 4.2\text{mm} } = \frac{ m }{ 3\text{mm} }
\Rightarrow
\frac{ 120\cdot3 }{ 4.2 } = m
\frac{ (120\text{g})\cdot(3\text{mm}) }{ 4.2\text{mm} } = m = 85.71\text{g}