Join us for the main discussion, practical takeaways, and stories from this episode of RC Plane Lab.
In this episode, Tom goes through some ways to save money in the hobby, not only on materials, but on tools as well. While it can be expensive, there are ways to cut costs without cutting corners!
Episode 53 Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Timestamps are retained.
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[0:00] Hello everyone and welcome to the RCplaneLab podcast. I'm Ron. I'm Tom. So last week we talked about our duelists and how expensive they were. Yeah, that was shocking. You really shocked me compared to what I spent. But that kind of got us thinking about, how do you do things and not have it be quite so expensive? So because of that, Tom has done some research and has found out some ways to do the hobby a little bit cheaper. Yeah, so that's what we want to talk about tonight.
[0:43] the hobby a little bit cheaper. Yeah, so that's what we want to talk about tonight, ways that you could get in the hobby or participate in the hobby a little bit cheaper by choosing components, RC items that maybe aren't name brands, but might be off-brands or something you might find on Amazon. Yeah. Before that, also last week, we had the videos of the duelist that we released, and I noticed in that on my duelist, I had some wing flutter or some aileron flutter on the wings.
[1:14] Yeah, you mentioned that to me, and at first I didn't see it in the video, but upon closer examination, it actually looked like both of our duelists may have had a little bit of aileron flutter. Yeah, so I want to talk about how to fix that, what I can do on mine. And, I don't want to have that anymore. So, well, let's talk, let's talk about what it is. Well, I was going to say too, though, that's, that's one thing to where I don't think we would have
[1:37] noticed that had we not had it on video. Yeah. Cause we couldn't hear it. You couldn't hear it. You really can't see it from the ground. It. It was just in looking at the videos after we had it, obviously, is when we noticed it. Yeah. And it made me a little uncomfortable. Yeah. Like I said, we couldn't hear it on either airplane. So having a video was really kind of nice for that even. Yeah.
[1:59] I mean, not just to record the maiden flights, but what Flutter is, I mean, basically, you have a hinged control surface and what flutter is, is a rapid oscillation of that control surface while you're flying. And it doesn't sound bad, but it, but it can lead to catastrophic failure. if a hinge fails because of this extreme flexing and the high-speed vibration of that, then you potentially lose that control surface.
[2:28] And if that happens on aileron, okay, you lose your roll control. But if you lose something like that on an elevator, you have complete loss of control or the ability to maintain altitude and ultimately, probably going to lead to a crash. So definitely, definitely a bad thing. to lead to a crash. So definitely, definitely a bad thing. If you can identify it before catastrophe happens, so much the better.
[2:54] Yeah. And nobody wants to crash. So anything we can do to prevent that, we're much better. So one thing that I know I did not do on mine and I had planned on it, but honestly, I forgot. So I didn't seal. Well, we were in a rush too. We kind of were. We were trying to get them done but i didn't seal the the hinge gap from the aileron to the actual wing so i don't know if something like that would cause a little bit of flutter issues and the other thing like my ailerons
[3:19] probably are sitting a little farther away from the wing than they should be. And the reason I did it that way is because I probably didn't shape the ailerons very well when I did it. it was my first time. Oh, you mean the leading edges of the ailerons. Yeah, leading ailerons. So the thicker part of the aileron. Yep, so you could get the travel you wanted. Right. So when I shaped that, I probably didn't do it correctly.
[3:42] So in order to get the travel I was going for, I kind of had to move the aileron a little farther away than I should have. And that probably, well, that is the reason that the gap is so big. Because I know your gap is a lot smaller than mine. Yeah, but it's not perfect. I didn't say it was perfect. I just said it was smaller. So, yeah, with that being said, would sealing it make that much difference? Sealing it would definitely help.
[4:09] Because what's going on is air is rapidly going from the top of the wing to the bottom of the wing through that gap. And that creates an eddy or a current or an irregular air current around that aileron causing the flutter. rapid high pressure, low pressure. It's a narrow dynamic thing that I don't really want to get into, but sealing that hinge gap is key to preventing flutter and also having linkages that are nice and snug with no slop.
[4:39] Yeah, I didn't think I had a lot of slop in mine. I think that might be most of the issue with mine. I chose to use z bins at the at the servo arms which usually is not a not a problem but i may have i may have drilled the holes in the server arms a little bit too large yeah so there's a little bit of slop in the wire so that's an easy fix i'll flip the arms around and drill the holes smaller on that side and
[5:00] should be good to go like with yours how many hinges did you use? I have five hinges on each aileron. Okay, so do I then. So it's not like I put… And I went with the Robart pinned hinges, which are the, they're pinned. the joint where they flex has got a metal, like, no kidding, a metal pin in there. So I chose those because they're strong. But yeah, I was not expecting the flutter. So yeah, I'm going to have to seal my hinge gap and tighten up the control rods.
[5:32] Yeah. So I just use the CA hinges on mine. It was so much easier to do it that way. Yeah. CA hinges are nice. They've been around forever. So I figured it was good enough to use them. Yeah. So that's it. So just fill the gap and that should be enough, you think? Yep. Seal the gap and make sure the link So just fill the gap and that should be enough, you think? Yep. Seal the gap and make sure the linkages are nice and tight. Okay. And you should be fine.
[5:51] Then we will do that and try it again some other time. And hopefully that fixes everything. Yeah. Luckily, we didn't see any flutter on the elevator on either airplane. So that's a good thing. That was a little farther away, though. It's kind of hard to see, I think. Well, the elevators are wider also. So I would think that we probably would have heard, at least on your airplane, we would have heard any kind of flutter. Yeah. But the ailerons on these airplanes are pretty thin, honestly.
[6:12] They are. They're what, an inch? Yeah, I think they're right at an inch wide. So, yeah. So, yeah, seal the hinge caps and tighten up the linkages, and that'll fix that issue. And so then, does a bigger surface, like a deeper surface, make a difference in how much flutter you can get? Because, like, on my elevator and my rudder, it's a lot bigger than yours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the size matters. So, is bigger better or is bigger worse? Well, I mean, depends on who you ask.
[6:42] some people would say bigger is better. So, is bigger more prone to give you flutter? Oh, really? Yeah. I kind of would have thought the opposite of that. Well, in my experience, especially with ailerons, a wider aileron, I had an airplane. It's been some time back. It was a Katana. No, no, no. I'm sorry. I don't mean wider. I mean like the actual depth. So like on a on a rudder and on an elevator like mine are quite a bit bigger than yours yes so the bigger
[7:10] the the longer they are yeah so that's what i'm talking about i'm sorry okay yeah so i didn't want to cut you off my bed no that's okay so like on this old katana 50 i had which was hanging it had really really deep or wide ailerons. It was designed for 3D flying. And I remember the first flight on that, both ailerons fluttered. And one of them fluttered to the point where it actually broke the control horn that was bolted to the aileron.
[7:37] Mostly because of the width of these things were just so enormous. And when you gained any kind of airspeed, the flutter, because there was so much deeper and therefore heavier, the oscillations were that much more extreme. So I think a wider control or a deeper control surface is probably going to be more prone to flutter and certainly be more prone to the damaging effects of it.
[8:01] And like I said, I would have thought that to be the opposite way because there's more mass, so it moves slower. Yeah, but more mass is more, mass changing directions quickly. So that's quite a severe shock to the system. I am so glad I didn't think about flutter before we actually made those because that would have been another thing on my mind. So that didn't even cross my mind that's a good thing but on your airplane
[8:26] though like i said we didn't hear it so any flutter that may have happened i think was minimal and it really looked like like when i noticed it was on lower speed passes when we did the higher speed passes i didn't see anything on the video yeah so it's it's I don't know. I'm still not 100% convinced that it's not some weird photo, video anomaly. Thingy. Yeah. But anyway, it didn't do any damage. Usually a telltale sign of flutter is you can usually see some kind of wear,
[8:59] either in the servo arm or the control horn, elongation of the hole, maybe where the clevis goes through or anything like but we didn't see anything like that so yeah anyway not a bad idea to seal the gap i will definitely do that before i fly it again call it good i like doing that that's easy that's a quick fix yeah so you want to get into saving money yeah i mean i tell you what i like
[9:22] saving money it doesn't look like it how much do you spend on your do list? Well, that's, that's what got the whole conversation started, right? there, there were things that certainly that I, that I could have done, to save myself some money. And like I said, in the, in the last episode, some of the stuff that,
[9:39] that I accounted for, I already had. So it didn't really cost me what I said it cost me. That's just what you would expect to pay if somebody didn't have the stuff already. But certainly there would be ways to save some money, especially on a build of that size. And you saved quite a bit of money on yours, too, and we'll talk about that with some of the cost-saving measures we're going to go over.
[10:02] Yeah, I'm cheap, so the cheaper I can go, the better off I am. He is cheap. I don't have a lot of funds for this. So yeah, cheap is good. So I'll start. I'll preface this first one by saying it used to be a lot cheaper to do this, what I'm getting ready to talk about, back in the day. Which was how long ago? It's been a while. Which was how long ago? It's been a while. I'm not going to get into that. So, making your own, blending your own fuel.
[10:29] For us nitromethane guys or nitro fuel guys or glow fuel guys, it basically is three parts. We've talked about fuel before in previous episodes. Our model engine fuel consists of two, sometimes three components. Basically, it's methanol, oil, and nitromethane in varying percentages. Back in the day, it used to be quite economical to blend your own fuel just using those three components that you could get.
[10:58] Methanol, which is basically alcohol, you could go down to your local race shop and they would sell it to you a gallon at a time for three or four bucks. Wow. Times have changed. Yeah. It's harder to get, especially some of these other components like the nitromethane, it's hard to get and it's very expensive. So assuming that most folks for 10% nitro fuel pay about $30 a gallon, that's an average. I mean, obviously some folks pay less, some folks pay more.
[11:32] Here in the Midwest at our favorite hobby shop, it's about $30 for a gallon of 10% fuel. Gosh, that is just so expensive. It is, especially if like on, for instance, my dualist last weekend, I went through a lot. So 12 ounces times three. So, 36 ounces of fuel just in those three flights. And those were relatively very long. So, yeah, you can go through a gallon of fuel in a weekend easily. Oh, yeah. Or more, maybe more than a gallon. Some folks can.
[12:11] Which is why I like electric batteries. So much more. As opposed to fuel batteries. That was both. That's why I like electric slash why I like batteries. Because they're cheaper. They are. No question. I'm not going to argue that point. So just for example, 10% fuel, I ran down some of today's prices. Probably the most economical way to do it is to start with a VP Fuels sells a 50-50 blend of methanol and nitromethane. It comes in a five gallon container.
[12:44] Like I said, it's 50% nitromethane, comes in a five gallon container like i said it's 50 nitromethane 50 alcohol we'll just call it alcohol five gallon pail of that today's price is 162 bucks and with the with the ratios ouch well hold on that will make according to my notes 24 gallons of 10 fuel okay so i'm not gonna i not going to bore everybody with the details of the numbers, but… You bored me with them earlier. I did.
[13:12] And I promised I wouldn't do that to our viewers and our audience. So basically, you start with that, and then you add varying amounts of oil and methanol or alcohol to the remainder of that to make about 24 gallons of fuel. And what that ends up costing you is about $23 a gallon. So it saves you a little bit. It's kind of a headache and then you have to go get the components and things like that. So
[13:37] if you burn a lot of fuel, or I could see this like as a club, a club that maybe burns a lot of fuel throughout the course of a season, they want to maybe get in together and blend 50 or so gallons of fuel. You could, I mean, and obviously the more of this you do, the more you save, right? Because the stuff gets cheaper when you start buying it in larger quantities. Yeah. But then you also have to have metal containers to put them in. Metal's the best. True.
[14:10] And you have to have a way of storing 50 gallons or whatever you end up making.
[14:19] Well, luckily, the VP fuels, it comes in a cool five-gallon plastic drum that's actually really, really super convenient. It's got an airtight lid on it that when you close it, it's, for all intents and purposes, completely sealed. Airtight, yeah. Yeah, thanks. Airtight. But yeah, so you could save a little bit of money by blending your own fuel. I'm not sure that it's really worth, at least according to the numbers that I came up with,
[14:38] the convenience of just going to the hobby shop and getting one gallon or two gallons instead of trying to make 24 gallons and then selling off the gallons to your buddies or whatever but that's one way that you can save some money in the hobby yeah so how long do you think that fuel would last like is that you obviously probably won't go through 24 gallons in a season so like i said i could foresee
[15:01] doing something like this and then selling fuel to club members or maybe the club doing this and selling it to the club members,. But honestly, if you have fuel stored in, let's say, a metal container, like you said, which are the best, two or three years in a sealed container that doesn't get opened is probably a realistic expectation for how long that fuel's gonna last. Okay. Well, that's not too bad then. Yeah, I don't think so.
[15:29] Certainly, I could probably burn five to seven gallons of fuel in three years' time easily. Well, if you had your way, you'd do that in a year. Yeah, if I had my way, I'd do that in a summer. But yeah, so like I said, I'm not sure if it's worth it, to save $7 or so for a gallon. But in like a club situation, I could see that as a cost-saving measure. As a cost-saving measure. That's a tongue twister. It is. To, to pass along to your members.
[15:59] Well, and seven bucks a gallon adds up over, would you say, how many that make? 24? That makes about 24 gallons of fuel. So times 24 you're almost 175 bucks yeah that's not nothing no that's not nothing there you go that's one way you can save some money in the hobby another way and this is like one of your favorite ways creating your own balsa sticks oh my gosh Like, I don't know why that blew my mind so much when we were up at the hobby shop and you said, here, buy this.
[16:31] That changed my life. Yeah, it's a game changer. I mean, really, the pricing on it just drops dramatically and it's so much easier. It's crazy. It's crazy how much money you can actually save by taking a quarter inch by three inch wide plank and cutting it down with that cool master air screw balsa stripper or another tool that will do the same thing and make that into whatever size sticks you need. It's
[16:56] crazy the amount of money you can save by doing that. And that's probably the only way I'm going to do it from now on, like to be honest, because it's not worth not doing it. Yeah, I'll probably, well, I mean, I'm not going to say never. never's a long time. Well, that's true. But I don't foresee myself buying quarter-inch by three-eighths or quarter-inch square balsa sticks for a while now that I've, broken out that master hair screw tool.
[17:20] Well, and the thinner it is, the easier it is to cut, too. Absolutely. Quarter-inch kind of got to be a little bit problematic for me at times. Well, with hard balls, it can be. Yeah. But medium to soft balls, man, mine, anyway, it goes right through it. Oh, yeah, definitely. With a fresh blade, man. Like I said, quarter inch got a little bit more hinky because for some reason, I don't know if I was doing it wrong or what, but… Did you say hinky? Hinky? What is it? What is hinky?
[17:46] Got a little bit. Is that a word? I don't know. It is because I used it. Is that like wonky? Is it kind of the same thing as wonky? Maybe that's what I meant. I don't remember. I've heard hinky before, but I don't know what it means. It got a little bit difficult. It got a little bit off 90 degrees. Okay, yeah. So there were a couple of them to wear, and it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't a completely square stick. Oh, I got you. So that's something to kind of take into consideration, too.
[18:14] But like I said, thinner ones were no problem. It was just the thick ones, quarter-inch and so. But it was still cheaper to throw away a couple of those if I really messed them up than it was to buy it as sticks. Yeah. And really, the biggest problem I had, too, is when you get to the end, for some reason, I'd always kind of, like, get to the very end and kind of go off just a little bit. Yeah. I did that, too. Well, good. I do that, especially on the quarter-inch stuff. Yeah.
[18:40] But, like you said, I mean, how often do I use a full 36-inch length of quarter-inch by quarter-inch? Rarely. Not often. And if I need something that precise, I'll just be more careful with the tool. I thought you were going to say buy a stick. I'm glad you didn't. No, heavens no. So as an example, I ran some numbers. So I'll use SIG prices because I like SIG Balsa. Look at this. You're the numbers guy today
[19:05] yeah I like it that's a that's a that's awesome switching it up a little bit yeah you go girl that was me giving Ron a look by the way so yeah sig sells quarter inch square sticks by 36 inch for 75 cents each that doesn't sound expensive no No, it doesn't. SIG also sells a quarter inch by three inch wide sheet or plank for $3.63. That sounds like a lot more than 75 cents. But listen, you can get 12
[19:37] quarter inch square sticks. How many? 12. 12? 12. By the way, it's usually 11 because I always have one that doesn't quite work out. Okay. Like that last one kind of gets hard to do. I follow you, but in optimum conditions, let's say everything goes right, you can get 12 sticks, because you're not taking a kerf. No, you're not. You're not running the… You're not removing material. Exactly. So you can get 12 of those quarter-inch square sticks out of a three-inch wide plank.
[20:04] And when you do the math that comes out to 30 cents each which is a lot better compared to 75.75 yeah so that saves you 45 cents per stick and if you multiply that like 40 percent that's five dollars and 40 cents over the over that that three inch wide plank that cost you three dollars and sixty three cents saved you $5.40 over twelve quarter-inch square sticks, right? Yeah So like and that's just one example like if you're doing a big a large build
[20:37] imagine the savings if you're doing like quarter by three eighths or three sixteenths by quarter or eighth inch by quarter I mean the savings aren't I mean, the savings are, I mean, it just gets, the more you get out of it, the crazier the savings gets. Well, and really it's not just the savings on how much you save money-wise, but it's the savings on space to where you can keep three or four inch wide pieces of balsa and that will make quarter
[20:59] inch wide. That will make three-eighths inch wide. If you need half inch wide, you can do that. If you need eighth inch wide, eighth inch by quarter, you can do it that way too. Yep, you can make it whatever, like that tool. I mean, that tool will pay for itself the first project and then some. Well, the first sheet pretty much. I mean, really. Yeah. I think it's what, 10 bucks or something? It was about 10 bucks. Yeah. So no brainer. And you don't even have to have the tool to do it.
[21:22] True. You could fabricate something in your shop to strip or to rip sheets of balsa to whatever length or width you need. Yeah. So, yeah, cutting your own balsa sticks saves you a lot of money, especially over time. So, anyway, one other way you could save money in the hobby. What else? How about this? How about using non-hobby grade products compared to hobby grade products? For example, let's talk about tools. Okay. Okay. I like tools. I'm a huge fan of
[21:56] Harbor Freight tools. Like I buy a lot of, like not just my hobby tools, but like tools I use to work on the cars or the bikes or whatever i i have a lot of harbor freight tools in my toolbox at home it depends what it is but i have several too especially things i know i'm going to use like once or twice but don't want to rent yes comes from harbor freight right because i'm not making money with it so it's not like it's a contractor
[22:19] thing where i'm doing a bunch of work with it so if it lasts me 10% as long as an expensive one does, for me, that's still a lifetime. Yeah. Yep. Totally worth it. So I'm going to pick on X-Acto first. Oh, that's mean. I'm going to preface this by saying I really like X-Acto products. They are very fine quality products. And I have a lot of X-Acto products in my toolbox at home. But I tell you what,
[22:47] I also have a lot of Harbor Freight hobby knife sets or pieces of hobby knife sets in my collection. For example, Harbor Freight sells a 13-piece hobby knife set, and I'm not making this up, and I'm not making this up, for $3.99. Comes in a wooden case, and it is nearly identical to the same X-Acto set. Same number of pieces, same blade shapes, same handle sizes, same way they work. I mean, they're nearly identical. X-Acto sells theirs for $23.
[23:21] I will say, though, some of the cheap ones are too cheap. It's like if you go to a dollar store or something like that and you find some of these, that it's a dollar for two of them with a couple blades. I've tried those before and I don't like them. Okay. So there is a way of going too cheap on things. Like I know it's about saving saving money but you need to get something that's quality at the same time i don't disagree however i will say when you say you need something
[23:52] of quality so i'm not making a living with these tools and i'm cutting for the most part fairly soft materials true so i don't need something that's going to last me 50 years because I'm working in a production line making my living with it either. But I've had just hobby knives in general, like the X-Acto type knives. Okay. I have gotten some from the dollar store, and the first time I screwed it in to put a blade in, it just strips. Oh, well, that's okay.
[24:23] So like I said, that's the kind of stuff yeah a tool that doesn't is not useful at all right yeah that's not that's not what we're talking about here i personally have experience with the with the the harbor freight tool set and have yet to have that particular issue i will say that the the the quality of the edge on the blades probably not as good or fine as X-Acto. But, I mean, when you're saving $20, I mean, I can buy a lot of blades for $20. True. And we're cutting balsa. Right.
[24:56] Or covering or, so it's not like it's going to be doing anything difficult. Yeah. And speaking of blades, the most common blade that we use. Number 11. Number 11. Number 11. You can buy those in bulk. Exacto sells them in bulk. And when I say in bulk, I mean like the packages of a hundred. Yeah, that's what I bought. You can get them on, sorry about that. You can get them on Amazon. You can get them, Hobby King sells a bulk pack.
[25:28] hobby king sells a bulk pack used to be if you were a hobby shop you could get bulk packs from horizon designed to sell them in the shop you break them down and sell them individually and that you could make a little bit of margin on that but exacto sells their 100 pack for 35 dollars wow i think the last ones i bought on Amazon were like $11.99. $11.99. Yeah, that's what I got here. That's pretty good savings. Yeah. Pretty good savings.
[25:52] And I'm still working on that first pack that I bought, so I'm still doing pretty good with it. I go through them a lot. I'm not afraid to change them out when stuff gets hard to cut, especially monocoat or the covering material. I'm cheap, so I like to make them. Well, I like a nice sharp edge on my covering. I like to make them last. Yeah. That's what trim's for, right? True. But you want your trim to be straight, too. Well, yeah, you're right. No, you're right.
[26:20] I think I went through probably 15 blades doing the dualist. Oh, okay. Well, that's probably about what I went through. Okay. Don't feel too bad. Okay. Yeah. And that's balsa and covering. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And I used one knife for the whole project. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. And I just replaced the blade. Okay. Next tool. This tool, every model builder should have okay in their in their tool box or on their workbench
[26:50] or whatever and i didn't realize by the way this was going to be a tool episode well it's not it's not a tool episode but we're talking about ways to save money and this is one other way so the standard by which all multi-tools are measured the dremel 3000 model number 3000. it's been called a few things over the years but the most current incarnation is the model 3000 and it does it all right it's the ac dc one with variable speed it has the finger chuck on it so you don't have
[27:17] to have the tool to tighten the bit all that kind of stuff what do you mean ac dc i'm sorry it's ac the corded one you plug into the wall. I'm so used to saying AC-DC because chargers, when we're shopping for chargers, we always want the AC-DC one so we can use it either at the field or at the car. Sorry. Anyway, the corded Dremel Model 3000 that does it all, we use it for everything. I found it as cheap as, say, 50 bucks online. Okay.
[27:46] That doesn't sound bad. I mean, for a tool that you're going to use over and over for many different things, you're going to use it. I mean, I use it for, cutting drywall, with a rotary cutter, or sharpening my lawnmower blades, or cutting wire. You sharpen your lawnmower blades with it? Well, yeah. I use an ankle grinder. grinder oh i just think they work a lot better that probably does work better so how
[28:11] long did i mean does it take you a long time then to do with a little dremel 10 minutes maybe that's a lot longer okay i'm done in a couple minutes anyway okay well that's fine i'll use my angle grinder but anyway you can use drill for anything. So, $50 for their Model 3000 kit. It's basically the tool and a few cutting, grinding accessories. Yeah, cutting wheels. And a little, like a blow molded couch or whatever. So, Harbor Freight, again, to the rescue.
[28:39] They sell a similar kit. It's made by Chicago Electric. That's kind of their house brand. Yeah. Excuse me. They sell one that is actually the same setup. It's a corded one, so it's AC, 110 volts, with variable speed, the finger chuck. But the Harbor Freight one has an ergonomic grip. So it's actually, instead of just being a straight tool, it actually has kind of a bend at the end where you would grip it, kind of like a pistol grip. Okay. But not quite as much of an angle.
[29:13] It's just a slight angle. It's very ergonomic, and it's really easy to use. And it comes with, I think, their kit comes with, if I recall, 25 bits in the kit. Now, I will say the Harbor Freight bits kind of leave a little bit desired. I would, especially the grinding stones, usually they're not true, so they vibrate like a son of a gun when you turn them on. But anyway, you can buy that kit at Harbor Freight for $23. That's less than half of the Dremel tool.
[29:43] Now, granted, you may have to replace some of the grinding stones with some quality stones or maybe a cutting wheel, but that's still quite a bit of savings. And I personally own one of these things and I love it. I would stick with Dremel. Like on that one, I really would. I have had some issues with Chicago Electric Tools before. And yeah, I know you could have one break and buy another one and then still be at the same price. But I just… Actually, if you have one break,
[30:10] they'll give you a brand new one when you take it to the store. I didn't know that. Yeah. Lifetime replacement. I don't know. Then they're probably great then. Maybe, perfect, use that. But there are still some things that I won't go cheap on. I understand. Me too. Yeah. We'll get to those here in a little bit. Now, I do have a Dremel Moto tool. And I'll be honest,
[30:33] that one is my go-to. Yeah. And I can understand that. But not because it's really any better or any better quality. It's just because that's the one I always go to. I don't know why. I have a Dremel and I have the Harbor Freight one and they both sit on my, I've got a shelf there by my building table. And for some reason, the Dremel is the one I always grab. But you don't have to spend the $50 for a Dremel. If you need a reverie tool,
[31:04] the Harbor Freight one will get the job done just fine. And that saves you $27. $27. That's a lot. You can spend on something else, like another airplane. Like a receiver or, yeah, an engine. So Lowe's foam board. So this is another item you can use. I mean, it's a great construction material. I mean, I use it for a lot of things. I know you wanted to talk about it a little bit. Well, I don't know what kind you're talking about yet.
[31:37] Oh, so the foam I'm talking about is like the pink or blue foam board. It comes in four by eight sheets in various thicknesses and that is a an extruded i think yeah so that's the extruded foam that stuff is great to you like i use that for cutting boards yes i cut all of my stuff on i think i have inch and a half just some pieces of two foot by four foot inch and a half yeah extruded foam yeah that's great
[32:03] stuff now you can get the expanded foam too too, which is the white, the beady-looking stuff. Is that the stuff that, like, when you break it, it throws little white pills all over the place? Little balls? Yes and no. Little balls. So, there are some that do that. If you get the really, really cheap stuff that they use for like packaging that will break off like that if you get like a good quality expanded foam it won't break
[32:30] apart like that okay you can make it break apart like that if you really want to but it doesn't just break apart like it would on the the packaging stuff so like when we build the the wings for the tri motor yes we're going to want to use the one-pound density EPS stuff, so we'll have to get some of that, because that's, I mean, the easiest thing to cut with hot wire cutter. Probably cheaper than the extruded stuff, too, probably. A little bit, yeah, but it's definitely
[32:57] lighter. Yeah, well, because it's got air kind of incorporated into the process, right? Well, they use steam to expand the pellets, and that's what makes them stick together. And then the amount of steam versus the amount of pellets that go in is what gives it its density and all that. But that's getting a little off topic. The one pound is just light and strong for what we would need it. Okay. All right. Well, the stuff I'm talking about is the extruded.
[33:24] It's a pretty dense, fairly heavy foam board that I get it at Lowe's. You can buy a four by eight sheet of this stuff for about 40 bucks for the two inch thickness. And you don't necessarily need two inch for a lot of things either. here specifically next are stands like so it's convenient to have a foam stand to put an airplane in when you're building it or working on it or whatever and robart makes one actually robart
[33:50] makes a couple of different stands and those are excellent stands by the way i have two i think of their little ones and i think i have two of their big ones too so i'm a huge fan of them yeah i have one of the big ones i I like it. Yeah. And so they're very well engineered. They're very well… And they're actually really not that expensive. But if you have a lot of airplanes and you don't want to store them on the gear… And why don't we want to store them on the gear, Ron?
[34:17] Oh, because it's going to make the wheels… Flat spots! Oh my gosh, flat spots. That's such a pet peeve of mine. I mean, thanks for letting me answer, by the way. You asked me a question. You cut me off. But that's all right. I was setting myself up. Because it's such a pet peeve of mine. But, yeah. I mean, it's so easy to prevent flat spots. I'm not going to. Okay. I'm going to get on my soapbox, and then I'm going to get right back off.
[34:41] So don't let your airplane sit on the tires please just a couple of ball a couple of little foam blocks with a hole in the center for the wheels to rest on no flat spots okay that's all i'm gonna say about that but you can make some really really inexpensive stands out of this four by eight sheet of foam from lowe's so if you have a lot of airplanes and you have space for the stands i mean i did the
[35:06] math you can make you can get eight 24 by 12 by 12 inch tall stands and then you can cut the hole in the uprights to fit your fuselage just right you can get eight of those out of a four by eight sheet of that foam and that works out to six dollars each six dollars for an airplane stand and what's the robot yeah the cheapest the smallest one from robart is 17.50 and what's the big one the big one i think is 29.99 wow that's the one i have yeah i didn't
[35:37] that's that's a big difference that's quite a saving especially if you have a lot of airplanes and and if you're like me you don't like for them to sit on their gear you can make stands or better yet but hold on those aren't two inch thick though the robert ones or robart ones are not two inch thick you could probably get away with inch or inch and a half even yeah you can and that would be a lot cheaper even but but i i like the the thicker the
[36:00] thicker thickness the thicker thickness okay i like the thicker ones, the thicker thickness. Okay. I like the thicker ones because they're a little bit more solid, especially for like a nitro, airplane or an airplane that's up there around the, the eight pound range or, or heavier, the thicker it is, the more stable it's going to be. True. Yeah. So yeah, some, if you've got some leftover dowels or some PVC pipe,
[36:21] pin the ends of it, glue it together and you got a really nice stand. And if you really fancy, you can kind of, hollow out the ends of it, glue it together, and you got a really nice stand. And if you're really fancy, you can kind of hollow out the center of it to put tools in and things like that, create cavities if you want. Like tool pockets. Yeah, exactly. All kinds of things you can make with this stuff to save yourself some money. So, yeah, stands. Cool.
[36:43] And I don't even, like like i didn't do the math but you can get like 40 or 50 pair of chalks like wheel chocks to rest your airplanes on so they don't get flat spots out of a sheet of this and i did actually look up let's see where did i find that oh here it is so there's a company sullivan actually sells them and i think they're called So there's a company, Sullivan actually sells them. And I think they're called Macy's Magic Wheel Chalks or something like that.
[37:11] They're aluminum, really, really high quality. Nice, nice stuff. They key into the axle on your gear. So there's no weight on the tires whatsoever. But these things are, let's see here, $25 for a pair of these things. Wow. Now, they're really nice. And especially if you've got like big airplanes, big heavy airplanes, that's kind of probably what you'd want to use. But if you're on a budget. But if you're on a budget. Then. I mean, yeah.
[37:36] you double layer a couple of these things for bigger airplanes that cut a hole in the center of it. And, for the tire. I mean, you can get a pair of these. a hole in the center of it and for the tire i mean you can get a pair of these and i think it comes out to like i think i did the math 25 cents for a pair of them yeah from 25 bucks to 25 cents that's a 100 fold difference so there you go yeah and then like
[37:59] you said you can use it as a cutting board yeah, which I went ahead and did the math on that too. So Hobby Lobby, that's another place I like to go to get stuff, especially if I'm in a hurry and because we don't have a hobby shop here in town, sometimes I need a piece of balsa or I need a piece of basswood or a piece of- Or basswood. Or basswood, crystal. so sometimes i'll get that sort of thing in hoblo and you can get you can get quality glues there too like you can get
[38:31] tight bond there you can get i've actually seen sig the sig yellow glue there before at any rate hobby lobby sells a self-healing cutting mat okay okay? And it's two feet by three feet, and it's $35. That's expensive. For a two-foot by three-foot self-healing cutting mat. And I have one, and it is great for cutting monocoat, things like that on. But what else is good for cutting monocoat on? Foam. A one-and-a-half-inch-thick piece of foam board.
[39:04] So here's my problem, like with the self-healing mats, because I've got one too. It sounds awesome being self-healing and all, but it's still, like I have more problems cutting stuff on that after I use it a lot. And why is that? Because you can still feel the ridges from where you cut. So it's still disposable. Yes, absolutely true. That's not going to last you forever. Foam also is disposable, but it's a lot cheaper. So much cheaper. And that's why, and you can use both sides of it.
[39:31] Yeah, exactly. Like mats are single-sided too. Yeah, flip it over when it's really beat up. So at Lowe's, you can get the one-inch thick, four-by-eight sheet for $13. That's not bad. And you can get five of those cutting mats out of one of those do how much that is per cutting that two dollars and sixty cents 260 there you go two dollars and sixteen cents compared to 35 bucks that's a lot better so there's a way to save some money in
[39:56] the hobby also what else let's move on oh gosh this this is a somewhat controversial topic oh i like controversy what do you got so using hobby grade products that are not brand name depending on that i have no problem okay so what i'm talking about specifically here is stuff that you can get on for example amazon aliexpress hobby, places like that. These products are more than likely made overseas. What isn't, by the way? Right. To be honest, a lot of our products are made overseas.
[40:36] So when somebody tells me, oh, it's made in China, that doesn't really bother me. Because a lot of stuff is made over there, and there's a lot of stuff that that comes here from there yeah would you agree i would agree like most of the spectrum stuff i think comes from there anyway doesn't it either that or taiwan oh okay but but still still so i'm gonna start with with one of my favorite non-brand name products that I've only really discovered recently. Okay.
[41:06] I call it China Coat, but it's also called New Cover. New Cover comes from Value Hobby. Okay. And I know that because that's what I used on the do list. Okay. And I love it, by the way. I do too. I bought some China Coat. I don't even remember where I got it from. And obviously. I do too. I bought some China Code. I don't even remember where I got it from. And obviously it wasn't called China Code. I think it was actually labeled NuCover, I think, when I got it.
[41:33] But it was a cheap alternative to Monocode. And I used it on that little Cloud Dancer project. And then I used a fair amount of it on my dualist. And man, I love it. And you want to know what I really love about it? The price? The price. So like I have a few scrap rolls of monocoat and ultracote, whatever, sitting back there. I really am just thinking about giving it to you because I have no use for it. I'll add it to my collection. There you go.
[42:02] It's not enough for me to keep because I can't do a full plane with it or anything. And I know I'm not going to replace it because it's so much more expensive. So you might as well take it. You can save the colors that you have for trim because here's the other thing about China Coat. It's compatible with Monocoat. You can use Monocoat over it. You can use it over Monocoat. It's awesome. What about Ultra Coat?
[42:24] Okay, so no. Okay, easy it over monocoat. It's awesome. What about ultra coat? Okay. So no. Okay. Easy enough. There we go. Ultra coat. Like I've, I've had, well, I like ultra coat. Okay. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, poo poo ultra coat. it's good quality stuff and I do like it. It's expensive. the problem I have with UltraCoat are sags. And I know it's probably my technique. I get that. There's a way you need to apply it.
[42:53] But I have, over these many years, I have yet to develop a technique that doesn't give me sags when an airplane has been sitting out in the sun for a while. Monocoat, I don't have that issue at all. Okay. And now with this other stuff, I'm totally sold. And here is the, is the kicker. So the new cover or the new coat, I can't, is it new cover or new coat? New cover. New cover. It comes in a 15 meter, I'm sorry, a five meter roll. I was going to say, where do you buy that?
[43:26] Because mine wasn't. It's a five meter roll, which is about 15 feet. It's actually over 15 feet. Okay. And it's for standard colors. In this case, I looked up red, bright red. $13 for a five meter roll. I paid 15. Or 16-ish bucks or 16-ish feet, right? A comparable roll of monocoat, Missile Red, okay, retails for a six foot roll. Six foot is nothing. Six foot roll for 15 bucks. Same price, a little bit more expensive for a lot less than a lot less so if you do the math
[44:06] i did the math the monocoat is roughly two dollars and fifty cents a foot the new cover is less than one dollar per foot yeah like i said i have no reason to use anything else so when i got mine i was afraid to use the metallics because i've heard people complain about that on some of the cheaper covering yeah but i use a metallic red no No, I didn't. I use metallic blue. I was going to say, what did I do that? I use metallic red. Oh my gosh. I use metallic blue. This color.
[44:37] That color. See, maybe that's it. I've got red right here. So I use metallic blue and I use metallic silver and I had no problems with them whatsoever it looks fantastic yeah i think the covering did well i have used i've used monaco for years and years and years and occasionally and it has something to do with the probably the heat that i'm using but occasionally with metallics especially especially on compound curves, I'll get like a smearing of the metallic. Yeah.
[45:07] Almost like it liquefies and then it loses its like grain direction. Yeah. I didn't see any of that on your new cover. I didn't either. On that metallic stuff. So, yeah, I'm a huge fan. It saves a lot of money. And so far, I mean, so far so good. Like I've seen the stuff sitting out in the sun. It doesn't sag. It doesn't seem to be letting go. It doesn't seem to be getting, what's the word, over time, brittle. Like, sometimes, Monaco can get brittle.
[45:37] Well, I've not had it long enough to know if it gets brittle. Well, but I mean, we've had it in some pretty cold weather. Like, yours has been sitting out in the car now for a few days. And it doesn't, it's still pliable. Monocoat sometimes can get brittle. So there you go. A non-brand name hobby grade product that saves you money. Yeah, like I said, I have no problem with that. Okay, so here's my next example of a non-hobby brand named Servos. I mean, Servos.
[46:08] Amazon, I mean, you type in RC airplane Servo in your Amazon search bar, and you will get, conservatively speaking, 20 pages worth of low-cost Servos. Yeah. And you've used some. I have. I have as well. Nothing bigger though. So I've not used any of the bigger ones on anything, but I have used like the nine gram ones for things I don't really care about. Yep. Yep. So in this example, I'd, me too.
[46:42] Like, so, and that I think is usually what most folks probably gravitate towards on Amazon when you're doing the servos. But just for example, I looked up a standard analog basic standard size RC servo. Something similar to like a Futaba S3003 or a Hitech 311 or a JR501 or a Spectrum ST4, a standard basic servo. Okay. So a high-tech 311, it's about 10 bucks each. The Futaba 3003s, I think you can get those for 11 to 12 bucks each
[47:18] for a decent, a brand name servo, right? So I tried to find one in Amazon and I found one on Amazon and it sells in a four pack for $20 yeah that's so high dollars per servo now I will caveat that by saying I have not used any of those particular servos yeah me neither but I think I'm going to and I'll get to this here in a little bit we're gonna talk about a radio here soon I may buy a few of these servos and just have to try them with this radio that we're gonna
[47:53] talk about and and really see how they perform do they perform like a five dollar server or do they perform like a comparable hobby grade or hobby brand name server we'll see but anyway that's another way you can save some money in the hobby especially on the smaller stuff which i've had no problems with this with the small servos i've gotten from amazon i've never had one stop working i've had them where they came dead but i've never
[48:20] had one stop oh okay yeah now i've had like 9-gram ones. Yeah, I've had Hobby King servos, like the HXT, whatever. I've had some of those come dead. They're all the same. I mean, really. True. Probably all made in the same factory. They probably are. So here's… I don't really want to talk about this one, but I feel like we should. Receivers. This is a topic you and I disagree on. And that's okay. Yeah, we do. Because it goes back to the fact
[48:53] that you don't want to use inexpensive receivers. Period. Ever. And they really don't bother me. Now, that could change quickly. But I've never had, like I've never used a Lemon RX before. But I've used several of the orange receivers. And I've never had a problem with any of the orange receivers. Like, I've said it before, the only time I've ever had an issue with a receiver going out on me and losing signal is a Spectrum receiver. And I'm not talking about the big yak either.
[49:25] I'm talking about that small little pizza box-looking little airplane. To be fair, you have had issues with the yak also. Well, that was completely on me. You don't think that was receiver-related? Well, it was receiver-related, but it was because of the power system. Okay. It was pulling too much power through it, so it browned out. Okay. Now, that had nothing to do with signal or anything. So the only time I've really lost signal completely has been through a spectrum.
[49:53] Okay, so not a fan of non-brand name. Now, I understand there are spectrum knockoffs out there that aren't real spectrums but have spectrum labels. I'm aware of that. It's happening. So for my spectrum equipment, I try to stick with spectrum receivers. And I will buy them either from a hobby shop or from a trusted source that I know that that is a spectrum product and not a copycat product that has a spectrum label on it. Okay. I'll preface it.
[50:23] copycat product that has a spectrum label on it. Okay, I'll preface it. Now, the orange receivers you're talking about, I have had experience with a couple of those, and I have lost one really nice, in my opinion, airplane because of that receiver. Yeah, that was my airplane. It was. It was that Seagull Extra. Great. I love that airplane. I did too. But I put, I cheaped out, and I put an orange receiver in it. No, I think that came from me too, actually, didn't it?
[50:48] Oh, it may have. It's been so long, I don't remember. I think so. And I did fly it for quite a while, actually. I flew it for probably at least a whole summer before I finally had the issue where I just locked up in flight. Yeah. And the crash was so devastating, I couldn't diagnose it because the receiver was literally in three pieces at the crash site. It's too bad we didn't have video of that one. Well, I still have the tail. I know. It's decorating my office at work.
[51:16] I know, but I want to see the video of the crash. But for saving money's sake, I ran the numbers. You can get a six-channel orange receiver from Hobby King for $17. They have gone up. Yes, they have. A lot. Yeah, $17. When I bought them, they were $5 apiece. You can get from Amazon a product called RC Mall. That's what's labeled on the receiver. A six-channel spectrum-compatible receiver for $1,298. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. I might need to try one of those.
[51:53] A spectrum six-channel sport receiver is $3,999. That's what I got in the do list. $27 you can save by cheaping out and potentially risking your airplane to a non-branded receiver. It depends on your airplane. I mean, I'm going to say there are some that if you crash, I don't care. I understand. Like if we have some cheap profile foamies or something like that, then that's fine. So I think everything has its place. It does. I agree. Yeah.
[52:24] But receivers are one thing that I'm not going to cheap out on. And that's just me. Foamies, stuff like that, probably no problem at all with that. But for me personally, I'm going to stick to spectrum receivers with my spectrum radios. All right. So moving on to radios. Okay. Huge fan of spectrum radios all right so moving on to radios okay huge fan of spectrum radios myself i have flown with spectrum since spectrum was spectrum yeah that's all i've ever used and before
[52:54] spectrum i flew with jr so nx6 i believe it is to the tune of over 200 for a six channel radio for a six channel sport radio then it got me thinking there's probably ways you can save money here so i did some searching and i did some reading and there's a product called fly sky it's a it's an off brand it's hobby grade yeah i've heard of them at any
[53:34] rate flysky makes a six channel radio for 48 on amazon that's good price and i read some of the reviews and I liked it to the point where I actually ordered one. And you can look for a review of that in a future video episode from us. And then I'm thinking, I'll thrash on it for a couple months and then what do you think? Maybe early April we'll give it away to one of our patrons? Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, yeah. So, we'll think about that some,
[54:09] and we'll make that available. So, if you're a patron, we'll randomly select one, and I'll mail it to you when we're done thrashing it. But anyway, I was so impressed with the stuff I read and the price that I went ahead and ordered one. Wow. Well, that's interesting. That says something because I've been Spectrum for a long time. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's good to test other things because I don't know how that works either. We'll try it out. Had I ordered two six-channel radios,
[54:38] had I ordered a Spectrum and this Flysky, I would have saved $152 over the Spectrum Radio by ordering just the Flysky. That's a big difference. So that's quite a savings, too. And does that come with a receiver, too, or you've got to get a receiver? It's a transmitter and receiver and the USB cord to program it, and I believe it came with a soft case. Wow. Oh, that's going to be interesting. I can't wait to see it. Yeah, me too. I'm really excited, actually. I haven't
[55:10] i haven't flown with anything other than spectrum in such a long time it'll be a it'll be a new experience it'll be exciting and like i said look for a review soon on that one heck you might like it and buy yourself one you never again give this one away they make a nine channel too i'm just saying attention see that would be nice because the eight just doesn't seem like it's quite enough sometimes yeah anyway okay next and i'm gonna make this brief engines so gas nitro that sort
[55:33] of thing so a third i chose a 30 cc just for an example a sato fg 30b is six hundred dollars FG30B is $600. Yeah. So quality, right? Sato engines, I'm a huge fan. Four-stroke, sounds awesome. Yes. NGH, which is a Hobby King brand, sells a GF30CC four-stroke engine for the paltry sum of $347. Ah, $150 bucks off. So, well, that saves you about $250, right? What did you say the first one was? $599 minus $340. So $600 minus $350. My maths is off. $250 savings. Now, I cannot speak
[56:17] for the quality of NGH engines, but one of the other Hobby King brands, RCGF, I think it is, I have experience with one of those because that's what's on my little s-box and that thing runs fantastic i have a 15 no yeah i think it's a 15 cc rcgf on my super skybolt and it runs great yeah or at least it did the last time we ran it yeah i've never had a problem with it but yeah but yeah there you go The same story with electric motors.
[56:52] I chose a fairly standard, and I have to admit, Ron is the electric motor guy. He's got the most experience. But to try to keep it simple for my little brain, I chose the Power 32 size electric motor. Turnigy sells one for $37. Great Planes, the Rimfire 32 is over 90 bucks. The eFlight Power 32 is $75. So minimum $37 savings just in your choice of electric motor, at least in that size range. Yeah. And I really don't have any issue with going with cheaper
[57:22] motors. I don't either. i mean you chose them you put them on your dual list i did actually fantastic i think the ones i put on there were 23.99 a piece nice and then i mean yeah they weren't great i have i have no problem with that see i think the whole going with cheap as opposed to the name brand i guess if you will kind of goes back to when i was doing rc cars like just at home racing with my neighbor. He had, what was it? The Traxxas Valenion? Yeah, I think that's some Valenion.
[57:53] Yeah, Traxxas branded brushless system. The expensive brushless system on his car. Yeah, they were expensive. Yeah, and I had the, I think it was Turnigy is who made mine. And our motors, I mean, they ran the the same like I could not tell a difference it's not like he had a any any more pull on me he couldn't pull wheelies better than I could he couldn't he couldn't pull away from me all about the wheelies it's all about going
[58:16] fast and his his was no no faster than than mine was however the thing I liked about mine so like he could replace the bearings in his motor when it went out and they went out I mean we ran him hard so mine would die just about the same amount of times that his wood bearings go out something would happen so he could replace the bearings in his I just replaced the whole motor and it was the same price I mean so you replaced a whole motor for what it cost him
[58:45] to just to be bearings in his, plus he had to actually do the work to replace them. I didn't have to do that. And he still had a motor that had all that time on it and you had a brand new motor. Well, not only that, but when my motor died, which like I said, it wasn't often, but when my motor died, I would put a new one on because I always kept a spare and we would just be ready to run again in five or six minutes. Yeah, you didn't have to rebuild it.
[59:08] As opposed to being done for the day because he had to rebuild it. Yeah. So that's, like I said, going back on that, I've never had an issue with going cheap on that. Especially on cars because you can't, fall out of the sky. Well, yeah. But you don't push these motors as hard as we do with cars. No, I don't think so. So they should last a good long time. Yep. So batteries, that's another area where you can save some money.
[59:34] I like to buy my Nitro airplane receiver packs from Amazon. Their brand name, Tenogy, I think is how you pronounce it. Tenogy, yeah. I bought a couple of those. Yeah, and they're $12 for a 6-volt, 2,000 milliamp. And I've had excellent results. I actually cycled one once, and it came out like 1,980-something milliamps. I mean, they're decent, and I'm pretty sure the cells are probably the same cells that you get in the brand name packs like Dynamite and Onyx and let's see, Spectrum.
[1:00:09] But, yeah, so for comparison, the Onyx, which is a Hobby Co. brand, same battery, 6-volt, 2,000 milliamp, $25. Wow. So I have no trouble at all cheaping out on the batteries because I've had good luck with them. And, I mean, I buy two or three of these things at a time, and I don't mind swapping out a battery after three or four years just for that peace of mind. At $11, $12, that's cheap insurance.
[1:00:38] And you do that on a name brand one, too, so it's not like you're doing that only because it's a cheap one. Right. The same sort of savings can be had on LiPos also. So for the numbers, I chose kind of like a standard three-cell 2200 milliamp LiPo. eFlight sells one for $30 with a 30C rating. Amazon, you can get a two-pack of a 35C rating for the same price. So half price. So half price. So half price. Yeah.
[1:01:07] And I have used some Amazon, I'll just call them Amazon lipos, and I've had great results with them. Yeah. Now, do they make as much power as like the brand name ones? I don't know. Would I notice? Probably not. Yeah, it depends. I mean, if your C rating is that high anyway, you're not going to tell. I don't think you're going to tell much difference in them. Like you said, I don't push them that hard anyway.
[1:01:30] So, yeah, on batteries, I don't have any heartburn at all spending the money at Amazon for those. Yeah. And the same thing goes for electronic speed controllers. Yeah. And the same thing goes for electronic speed controllers.
[1:01:54] I don't mind cheaping out on the speed controllers because the ones that I've actually had experience with from Amazon have been fine. Yeah. Once again, that's why I'm running the do list. I think the 80-amp speed controller is what I'm using, and it was $29.99. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So a Castle 90-amp, which is about the same specs was $29.99. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So a, a Castle 90 amp, which is about the same specs,
[1:02:08] $65 for one. Yeah. Amazon for a four pack. So here's another example. E-Flight makes a 40 amp ESC with a four amp BEC for $29.99. Okay. On Amazon, a company called Ready2Sky, I think that's the brand name of the one that you got. Yeah, that's what I have on mine. You can get a four-pack of 40-amp ESCs. Now, granted, these are probably marketed to quadcopter kind of guys because there's four of these in the package. Yeah. But I looked up the specs,
[1:02:41] and they each have, I think it was a three-amp BEC, which is normally plenty for any electric that i'm gonna fly especially on the 40 amp size yeah a 40 amp four pack for forty dollars so that's ten dollars a piece each yeah yeah so that's quite a savings and i had a little note here. If you wanted to go bigger, you could save even more. Your 80 amp ESC is a perfect example of that. So last and not least, battery chargers.
[1:03:13] So I'm going to go back a little bit to the car days. I used to spend big money on racing battery chargers, right? I mean, like ridiculous. Big money, okay. Competition Electronics back then, they made a product called a Turbo 35. It was a, back then, computerized chargers were like just coming on. This charger was like $375, I think it was. Oh my gosh. And it was DC only. Like you couldn't just plug it into the wall. Didn't even have ever power supply it? No. So times have changed.
[1:03:51] And just as I was getting out of RC racing, chargers were getting really, really reasonable. In fact, I think there was a charger called IMAX. I-M-A-X. Yeah, that's… And it was a DC only charger, but it was 35 bucks. And it would do every battery, like every type of chemistry. Is that like the B6 or something, I think? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what I used for my comparison here, and you can actually still get that.
[1:04:14] That charger has been upgraded over time, and quite a few different names sell the charger, but it's all the same charger. In fact, it's still called the imax b6 ac and this is where that ac dc thing comes in okay you can plug it into a wall or you can hook it onto a 12 volt battery battery 48 you can buy that charger for wow so they've gone up too though
[1:04:37] because i bought the thunder b6 with the ac adapter built into it and it was 35 bucks yeah but still they have gone up some but this one like i said it's it's acdc and it will charge every type of chemistry it'll do lipos lives lithium ions the nickel metal like nike it does them all it'll even charge a 12 volt lead acid battery yeah like a car battery i've used mine to charge Piper's power wheels. Yeah. Perfect. I
[1:05:05] mean, they work for that. Yeah. Did a great job. For 49 bucks. So a similar brand name, charger that's out there, Hi-Tech, which is a name that I really like. I actually have a Hi-Tech four-port charger, which is going back a few years, but it's a great charger. DC only. DC only. Exactly. You have to use it with a 12-volt power supply or hook it onto a battery. But Hitech makes one now that's AC-DC. It's called the RDX1. It's relatively new.
[1:05:35] And really, though, price-wise, I think this is pretty reasonable, $63. That's not bad. And it does every same thing. It does every chemistry, probably does a little bit more as far as like you can probably safely, I'm going to say safely, cycle lipos and things like that with this charger. So price-wise, it might be a wash for the features that you get.
[1:05:57] But still, if you're new to the hobby and you want to spend as little as possible, the IMAX charger for 48 bucks is certainly not a bad buy. Yeah. So there you go. I agree. That's my list. There are some ways that you can save some money in the hobby. And you don't have to be like us or be like Tom and spend $1,000 on a plane. Right? Right. There you go. Exactly. I mean, we want, bottom line, we want to see people enjoy the hobby.
[1:06:27] We want to see people get in the hobby and then not be discouraged because of how expensive it is or how much they crash or any of that stuff. We try to enable. That's what we're doing. We're enablers. We are. Well, that's what we should be. We should be. It's a great hobby. It is a great hobby. I mean, if it wasn't a great hobby, I wouldn't have been in it for so long. And the cheaper, the better. Like, I agree.
[1:06:49] I mean, I think that's a good takeaway because you don't want to spend more money than you need to. Yes. And I will say this, only cheap out where you're comfortable cheaping out. Yeah. Or only spend the money, the the extra money where you're comfortable spending the extra money i guess that's probably a better way of putting it spend the extra where you feel like you need to in my case i don't cheap out on receivers ron's case he cheaps
[1:07:15] out on everything i do because i don't have the millions of dollars that you have yeah right but no i i do try and get deals when I can and I have not been bitten yet. And we didn't even touch on used equipment. That'll be for a future episode. That's a good idea. This has been long enough. They've listened to us ramble long enough. So hopefully. Yeah. With that, I'm all done. That's all I had for this episode. Okay. How about you? I just kind of sat here, so we're good. so
[1:08:13] hey Hey! Hey!
