Raptor X50 build thread

[KouDy]

More of bags D and E. Page 15 in the manual. Again i was a bit lost in the drawings and counts. Finally got it sorted correctly.

So first go back to he left side and using 2 self tappers (3) in 2 servo trays (5 and 6) into the front part.

Then put on the right frame (mind the cables if you have switch installed). There are 9 socket screws (2) and 6 washers (1). You want to threadlock these. 3 without washers go into the mounting block (4) around the clutch bell (same as left side). 4 with washers are going into the clutch bell assembly blocks. Remaining 2 with washers are going into 2 upper holes in tail boom bracket.

Then the self tappers are going in. 5 are to secure servo trays in the front. 2 are going into the fan casing, 1 goes above the tail boom bracket and 4 last that will remain you already used in securing servo trays in the front.


That's it for now. I am missing wrench for tightening the nut on the engine shaft. Apart from that i failed to find any push glow ignitor and any 90 class size starter with built in battery. I will resume the construction once i found at least a wrench somewhere in LHS...

[Bob O]

Looks great so far!

[KouDy]

Thanks. I am trying to describe obstacles i found during the building so maybe it will be helpful for others building this greatly looking machine.

I went ahead and assembled elevator arm, no photos from there, it was simple and easy, just need to watch direction in which you mount the plastic arm so you are smaller hole towards the front of the heli.

[texasclouds]

Originally Posted by Bob O

Looks great so far!

+1!

[KouDy]

Bag F, engine assembly (page 16).

There was no problem at all with this one (except for wrench to tighten the nut). Take out the engine, screw down the fan (3) (fins are to face away from the engine). To tighten this i spun the shaft until i saw a hole inside where carb goes on. Stick there plastic pen (other end then tip) and carefully tighten it. Put on the nut (goes into the deep section of the fan). Now they do not tell you to threadlock any of these. I did use threadlock for nut only. Not sure if it's right or not, but if it's metal to metal, threadlock it . Same trick with pen worked for me for tightening. Do not try to lock the piston from the side. I think that could damange your crank shaft inside the engine. Put on the shim (2), one way clutch shoe (1) and secure with 2 socket screws (4). Ofc threadlock them. 4 socket screws (3) are to mount the engine mount (6). Finally put the engine together. I won't go into too much details here, it's simple plastic washer then carb and threadlock 2 screws in.


Word to engine. There is a thin shim supplied with Redline engine in the kit. Piece of paper there says :

There is a head shim included with your engine. Use this shim when flying in hot and humid conditions and/or using fuel containing more than 15% nitro.

Here in malaysia it is hot and humid but so far i did not use this. Per my info this thing should go inside the engine. Unscrew 6 screws that are visible from top of the heatsink (red part). And somewhere there. Not sure, never done such thing before.

EDIT : I installed the shim after all. They recommend it so wiser to go with it...

[KouDy]

Bag G page 17.
First i screwed bottom frame (6) to the engine mount. Threadlock these 2.

Plate mounting blocks (3 and 4) should go to bottom of the body. They are secured by nylon nuts and socket screws. There are 2 for left side, 2 for right. I found letter R on 2 on them (on their inner side). Letter L was only on one of remainings but well, obviously fourth one went to left side too . Don't threadlock these as nuts are nylon ones.

And finally to join bottom frame with engine with body. 4 socket screws (1) and 4 washers (2) go through side panels into the engine mount. Shaft from clutch bell assembly should go into the one way bearing in the shoe on top of the motor. Threadlock the nuts and you are done.

[KouDy]

Bag G, page 18. Lading skid assembly and elevator arm.

Not much about elevator arm here. Threadlock all nuts and grubs. Long grub (5) should go into the slot on the elevator rod (6). Elevator rod balls will be out on the right side of the heli (in direction of forward flight). Check that you are not putting elevator arm (1) the other way. Smaller hole should point forward so you can snap it on swashplate ball later.
Landing skids have 2 mounting holes. Inner ones are the ones you want to use. When mounting them skids are to point forward. I first mounted both skids (10)

Then push the skid pipe (11) through each one of them. I am not sure how forward or back they should be in. I measured 40mm from end of the pipe (back side) to the beginning of the back skid. Just to have them both in same distance. Then secure pipe by grubs (13). Manual says to threadlock these (not CA, but threadlock) which makes no sense as plastic and threadlock are no friends so i would recommend skipping this. Finally put on the caps (12).

[KouDy]

Bag H, main gear and head assembly to frame, pages 19 and 20.

This was tricky one. I tried all without threadlock to get confidence i am doing all correctly.
Putting together main gear and auto rotation gear is fairly simple. When you put the gears appart make sure you don't lose washer between them!. Screw the 4 screws with threadlock and put autorotation gear back.

Now the tricky part of putting head into the body. So page 20 progress should be like this :
take collar (4) and lay it down on the bearing inside the frame (so it matches the hole in the bearing). Now slide the main gear assembly carefully on top of this. Main gear (bigger one) is on top. Place the holes in autorotation gear and one way shaft over them (so you can see through). Take the head assembly and start pushing it into the main gear assembly slowly. Main shaft bolt (3) will go into UPPER hole on the main shaft (no idea why there are 2 holes, perhaps because of belt driven version). Push the upper body spacer in between the side frames and match the holes with metal spacers inside. Push the main shaft bolt through the all holes so it's locked. Now secure the upper spacers with bolts (only like half screw them). With all in place, try if there is any movement of the whole head up and down (hold body down and push head by grip up). If there is, let is rest down by it's own weight. There is main shaft lock ring (page 11, part 3) with 2 grubs locking it to place. Loosen both of them so you can move the ring. Lightly press it up and tighten one of the grubs. Try the moving the head again. If there is no movement, unscrew not tight grub completely and threadlock it back (tighten it), then do the same with the tight grub. Now loosen all 4 bolts holding the upper spacer with bearing and threadlock them in. Don't forget washers (2). Finally put nylon nut (5) into the autorotation gear and screw the main shaft bolt into it.

This process gave me no movement and tight assembly on the head into the body.

[KouDy]

Page 21 and continuing with bag H. Tank installation and front tray install.

Tray (11) is to be mounted with 4 self tappers (10), 2 from each side. Then slide canopy spacer (12) fix it with 2 (14) and put on rubber caps (13)

Long grubs (8) are to fix the control track (6) and for mounting canopy posts (7). Screw them into control track through frame so they stick 10.5mm on the outside of the frames. Fix the track with small socket screws (9).
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My clunk line was preassembled and inside the tank. I didn't really take it out from neither main not header tank. To push the tank into the place i used very little of soapy water on the rubber cushings. There is a joint on the bottom of the tank which was pulling the out the cushing for me on the right frame. When you get to this point, press on the tank like you want to squeeze it (on the bottom) and push and rubber should stay on the frame firmly.

Threadlock the rod guiding block (15) to the lower holes in tail boom bracket with 2 socket screws (16). Put tank mount (19) over the header tank (20) and screw it to place with self tapper (10) and washer (18) into the rod guide block.

[KouDy]

Aileron arms from bag H :

Very straight forward and easy assembly.
There are stand offs on aileron arms and balls go on the stand offs. One on the long part will go towards the frames, 2 ball for each servo are going away from the frame.

Long grubs (8) go through the frame to the holding block of clutch bell. There are 2 holes on each side. Grubs go to the hole that is in the back. I don't know what the frontal ones are for, they appear to be left empty. Grubs are to stick 21mm on outer side of frames. Screw on the arm collar (7) put the collar (2) in the bearings in the arm. Push it onto the grub and secrue with nylon nut. Arm should be completely free to move.

Bag H ending (leaving aside 2 screws and nuts, bearing and rubber bearing) for torque tube for later and moving to the tail unit first.

[Bob O]

Good job, Kou. I believe the main shaft has two holes at the bottom so it can accommodate the main gear assembly from the Raptor 50 as well.

My X50B uses the same hole in the main shaft as yours.

Also, the front holes in the clutch block are for the 140 degree CCPM option, which is the one I'm using.

[KouDy]

Awesome, thanks for filling the blanks spots Bob !

[KouDy]

Bag I page 23 tail unit assembly, tail blade grips and shaft. This is at one point a bit tricky assembly. So let's get this started...
Mount tail rotor hub (9) onto the shaft (7) where notches for 2 grubs (8) are. Match the holes and secure the hub with threadlocked grubs.

Prepare ball (5 and 6) onto the pitch control slider (3). This is a little hard, my screw driver was slipping at the and of the screw so careful about your fingers and hands!

Prepare tail pitch control fork (4) and using pins (14) secure control links (15) on it.

Now for the blade grips. Thrust bearings are again disassembled so same as main blades. Take outer part of thrust bearings and on the shaft, try to move them. Bigger size part goes towards the hub. Then balls part and then the tight part. I used allen screwdriver to slide blade grip on first then put the thrust bearing on in the right direction. Seed it into the grip. There are 6 washers, 2 bigger ones (18) and 4 smaller ones (17). Put bigger one on the thrust bearing and then radial bearing (19) and again seed it into the grip.with grip ready, slide it carefully on the shaft of the hub. Use 2 smaller washers and threadlock the socket screw (16) in.

Put 2 bearings (2) into the tail pitch slider control (part with ball screwed in) and put whole on the pitch control bushing (1). Take the prepared pitch control fork and slide it on the long shaft of the grips. Secure it to the grips with longer socket screws (13) and collars (12). Now the hard part. Slide the pitch control bushing with control ball on the shaft, threads first.

Now you have to screw this bushing into the fork. Why to do it this way you ask? I tried to do it away from the shaft but i was not able to thread it into the fork completely straight. Shaft will help you to keep straight fashion. It requires some force to screw it in. I used pliers, not sure if the notches on bushing will allow you to use some wrench...
Now unscrew the 2 socket screws that you used to fix the fork arms onto the grips and threadlock them (i guess you can do this right away). Manual doesn't say to use threadlock but it's metal to metal so i used it.

[KouDy]

This is it for today. Tomorrow i plan to finish the tail and tail boom assembly and put in the servos. After that it's waiting for some more parts. I do plan to show programming and setting the machine with my Futaba 10C (when it's back from service).

I have also decided i will use governor and it will be Aerospire MultiGov Pro. I am not going to use it as Carbsmart tho as it would require some modifications to the frame or crafting own parts and as reward i would get something i will very likely not recognize.

[KouDy]

A little word of warning about threadlock on this place.
I had to remove the main rotor hub from the shaft (unsnap links and remove 2 screws secured by nuts), unscrew screws from flybar levers on washout base. Reason for this was because i was not able to move whole swashplate up or down like it was locked or something. Originally i thought it is problem with swashplate itself but unsnapping first link revealed it can move freely.
Problem was with washout base because it was threadlocked to the main shaft. And here is the thing with threadlock.
If you can move anything on the shaft it means air can flow between shaft and washout. Now to the threadlock part. If there is fluid (threadlock) it will try to move away from your screw. There are 2 scenarios :

1. You applied threadlock to he nut. Threadlock in this case will go towards the head of the screw. It's the way of less resistance. But this you can smudge your bearings, washers, whatever is in the screw head direction.
2. You applied threadlock to the hole. This is to be separated into 2 cases
   1. The hole is not going through the part. This means it's airtight. When you start screwing, it will eventually go a bit inside, but then threadlock will again go against the head of the screw because it's easier there to escape the pressure.
   2. The hole is going through to the other side. In this case, screw will simply push some threadlock as you screw it in. If there is enough threadlock (or hole is short) it will eventually pour a little on the other side.

With this being explained, it is obvious that case 2.2. happened to me. Holes are through and threadlock (eventho i think i did not put that much there) made it to the shaft. Since it's tight fit and not much space between the washout it's ideal condition for threadlock to spread all over the place where it will dry faster. And there's your problem. I cleaned the main shaft with alcohol (just wet it) and scrapped the bit with finger nail. Then just pushed alcohol-wet piece of tissue into the washout base and i rubbed it a bit over the tissue with allen screw driver (gently to not to scratch it).

So in conclusion watch for amount of thread lock. A less is sometimes more...

[KouDy]

So tail boom assebmly part 2. Page 24.
I have this page as loose sheet of paper inserted into the manual. The differences are part 10 which in new version is simple pin. Old version is pin with grub. And part 27 is added (grub).
Off with the assembly.
Pull bearing (5) on the gear (7). It's the one without stand off. Add collar (6) and second bearing.

Put 2 bearings (4) into inner side of tail unit housing (1).

Seed the gear with its bearings and collar all the way into the housing.

Screw pitch control housing (2) with socket screw (3).

Prepare second gear (8), very thin washer (9) and pin (10). You have to place the washer between the gear and the inner bearing in housing. I held it on the gear and pushed it in carefully. I got to the point when gear was seeded and washer was a little off so just put pliers inside the bearing and seed the washer properly. Match the holes in the gear with the one on the shaft of the tail rotor assembly. Rotor assembly goes in from the way of pitch control housing.

Ream the hole on the gear a little on one side so it's easier to put in the pin (10). Use drop of CA on the hole and push the pin through all the way.

Bearings (12) go into pitch control lever (11), also put the ball (13) on now (i did it later). Slide the ball on rotor assembly into the pitch control lever and position the bearings over the hole on pitch control housing. Screw in socket screw (15) with colar (14) using threadlock.

Now i have assembled torque tube. CA the bearing onto the shaft. Manual says 350mm from the front side when the tips are on. I didn't notice that so i have it 350 without tip. I think point here is to have it not int the centre. Longer side will go to the front.

Slide this into (i lubed entrance of the tail boom with saliva) the tail boom. Place tail lining (26) into the boom and match the holes. Slide housing over the boom. Tail gear should seed onto the torque tube shaft. Again match the holes. Place the case button (18) into the hole and secure it with small socket screw (19) with threadlock.

Place the fin (16) on and secure it with 2 socket screws (15 and 17). They say not to overtighten the bottom one. I have it approx like this :

And finally put grub (27) into the shaft of tail rotor to secure the pin in the gear.

[KouDy]

Just trying to build the tail support rods and it's by far the stupidest step in the whole assembly so far... It's nearly impossible to screw those small srews sharp on to reach the hole on the other side...

[KouDy]

So the last mechanical step is putting tail into the body (page 25).

Making the support rods. I was screwing those 4 screws almost literally for hours .
There are no threads in the metal rods and screws are not self tappers so you are drilling through quite a lot of plastic piece and then also the metal part...
Nonetheless it should look like this :

Do not forget that ends of the rod (6), the rod ends (7) are 90 from each other!. The one at body is vertical, the one on the boom is horizontal. Careful with this.
Put three rod guides on the tail boom and mind the orieantation. In the direction of the flight manual says the guiding hole is on the left side. I don't think this matters that much but still...

Slide the tail into the tail boom bracket. Line up the cross on the torque tube shaft and the gear inside the bracket first. Seed the boom well and tighten the 4 screws in the bracket to secure it. Add 2 button head screws (3) to the remaining hole in the bracket (one from each side).

Now place the body spacer (1) behind the tank and line up the holes. Screw support rods lightly to the spacer. Then position tail support brackets (4 and 5) on the boom in the right distance and screw socket screws (9) into the place with nylon nuts (10) to lock this to the boom. Brackets are different. The inclined one is bottom one and goes thicker side towards the front of the heli.

Unscrew 2 socket screws from the spacer behind the tank and threadlock them tightly back.

And there is the final product. Muffler is not yet on i will do that tomorrow but there is nothing special there, put 2 screws on and i would say threadlock them if it's metal to metal and done.

And for comparison this is photo with mini titan brother


All major mechanical assembly steps are now done.

[Bob O]

Originally Posted by KouDy

Just trying to build the tail support rods and it's by far the stupidest step in the whole assembly so far... It's nearly impossible to screw those small srews sharp on to reach the hole on the other side...

Mine are a mess. After I stripped the first screw head, I reamed out the holes in the metal tubes so the screws would just go through the plastic, and I still broke the head off of two screws.

[KouDy]

I managed to screw them all in. But it was huge effort and i am really happy that mmy new work desk didn't arrive. I am sure i would have holes in it because screw driver slipped so many times...