Rubber-Powered Aircraft Tutorial: Braiding Motors

Veteran flyer and Flying Aces Club champ Wally demonstrates the process of braiding a rubber motor, which allows for a longer motor to be used without bunching issues. Note that a tightly braided motor will require some kind of freewheel mechanism such as Wally's Nason clutch, which is explained in Doug's video below:
• Nason Clutch Construction
Thanks for watching and leave any questions in the comments!

[@larzhillbot1443]

Best instruction i have ever seen on how to braid a motor HIGH FIVE

[@MetHerInBaghdad]

Great video, and I learned something new today.

[@avalon235]

Thank you for taking the time to explain a braided motor.

[@aureliobrighton1871]

Seems you have rediscovered that paradise garden, which at least would be indicated by the hymnal birdsongs. A fine place to unwind 🌷:).

[@jimbo2629]

Very interesting. I guess it must work. The traditional way of braiding that I use is to reverse wind each half motor separately and then connect both front ends together at the nose and allow to unwind itself. That way you don’t waste the first 100 or so turns unwinding the made up motor every flight. If you forward wind the loops it still braids the motor to the required length but you unwind the braid at the start of each flight winding.
The alternative is to not braid but have a spring prop stop to prevent full unwinding and consequent bunching. Either way you shorten the motor run and waste a bit of power.
F1B and F1G Wakefield and Coupe models normally have motors that are shorter than the nose to rear hook distance, so no problem.
Braiding is simpler with even numbers of strands, but can be done with odd. Better to alter the rubber thickness to get even strands e.g. 1/16 rather than 1/8.

[@MarkRobinson555]

Great interesting video, thank you 😊

[@devinmcgee5130]

10/10

[@rubberfly]

I don't understand why the motor doesn't turn any further at the end of the video .. Is it all because of the braiding?

[@sandfac3427]

Yes, it's because of the braiding - I don't know exactly why, but the motor stays bunched up with a small number of turns left when it is braided. The tighter the braid, the stronger this effect. This keeps the tension in the motor as even when braided and fully unwound, the motor is often longer than the fuselage.

[@stevejohnson3991]

Thanks Wally! How do you calculate the number of braiding winds relative to the thickness and length of the total loop?

[@sandfac3427]

Hey Steve, thanks for the comment. There are different philosophies out there about this, but people often specify a certain number of turns per inch to start, and then tighten if needed (rubber is not suspended after unwinding). I tend to do 150-200 forward turns each loop for a 20"-30" long motor, Wally often does a little tighter -- 300 turns or so.

[@computerillustration]

Hi, great video, tanks for sharing it Wally. I tried this system on two models, a Guillows cub and one other but I found the power delivery too slow and gentle to get them flying. They fly fine with 2 strands of 1/8". Is this braiding just for very light models? The rubber was well lubed.

[@sandfac3427]

Braiding like this can work for all sizes of models. Depending on the freewheel on the prop can be tighter or looser.

[@Errol.C-nz]

just made that out.. "this is going to be" ?? volume turn up full & still cant hear much.. need to edit your volume

[@sandfac3427]

Thanks, will double-check the sound in the future

[@me262a1]

I have a plane that really like one loop of 1/16 and one loop of 3/32 rubber. Will this technique work with two different widths? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[@sandfac3427]

sorry for the late reply, this should work fine with different widths. If just 2 strands rather than loops, you can twist each one with a binder clip and then tie off after they're twisted together.

[@Workerbee-zy5nx]

Cool..guilows rule.