Boomerang Dave's Boomerang Journal

Ian and I headed to the field. I guess we should have been prepared for the wild wind conditions. It was 15 to 20 mph and gusting higher. The directions went was constantly rotating about 90 degrees. My first couple throws were terrible. The wind was driving the boomerang backwards and into the ground. I was changing direction for the throws often and found that throwing directly into the wind was better than to the right of it.  The boomerangs would still dip and dive in unusual manners. Ian was getting off better throws than I was. It was beginning to make me wonder. I decided to watch his throws.

Ian was releasing a bit higher than I was, maybe what some of us call a humpback throw, which is useful in the wind. Here I am taking lessons from the student instead of the other was around.

After all our throws we still were not satisfied with performance. I think the traditionals are fine. The five arm boomerang was traveling much further than I expected and not getting a full return, even in the wind. I plan on adding some undercuts to the leading edge of each arm, which should shorten up the range. The Batrang was a different matter. My opinion was that it way trying to ess out at the end. My first throws were not getting full returns at all. Ian had some pretty good returns, narrowly missing the catch on one. Still, the flights I was getting could be more typical. Ian and I want to ask our friends out there for suggestions on what to do to improve the flights. One thing we should consider is to take them out on a more normal day and see if that changes the flights. Please feel free to let us know your suggestions and comments by clicking on the add comment button below.

Dave

Photo: Ian testing a Batarang

Sunday July 15 ^th and Ian come to my place to work. First off was cutting out the remaining boomerangs from last week. This was Ian's chance to learn to work with a different tool. I set him up with the band saw and watched carefully over his shoulder. It is quite different when the blade is stationary and the piece being cut moves. You need to remember to move the wood in the correct direction. Ian had problems with this but with me there to coach, he did just fine. It was certainly easier than using the jig saw last week.

 
With all the boomerangs cut out, we switched to sanding. We moved my belt sander outside the garage to take advantage of the breeze. The helped keep us cooler, but also blew the dust away too. This became evident when I attempted to take photo and was standing downwind. I got a face full of sawdust! I started Ian out with a few boomerang blanks made from expanded PVC. These sand quickly and gave him the idea of how to shape the airfoils. I then switched him to a sample boomerang in 5mm plywood. Ian quickly found out that you had to apply more pressure to the wood if you wanted to get anything done. Ian was doing a pretty good job of sanding so I got him to work on some of the project boomerangs.


He managed to do a great job on the traditional shape boomerangs and went on to the Batrangs. These proved to be tougher to do because of the many curves. Ian did both Batrangs and traditionals.  At this point he had boomerangs with roughed out airfoils so I had him switch to a small diameter drum sander mounted in my drill press. This allowed him to get the smaller curves in the Batrang and also to smooth out or soften the edges more on the rest of the boomerangs. He was doing great. We had three ePVC boomerangs, 2 Batarangs, 2 traditionals, one 5 arm boomerang and the sample boomerang he practiced with ready to test. I'll continue with the testing in the next journal entry.

Dave

Photo: Ian sanding a Batrang

I thought it might be good to give a bit of background on Ian's project. This really started way back around Christmas when Ian asked me to be his mentor for the project. Since the project was about boomerangs, I felt qualified to help and agreed. I had to sign all kinds of forms and permission papers. Ian also had to get a teacher to sponsor the project and instead of going to his art or phys ed teacher, he went to his physics teacher. I guess the science aspect of this project is too much to resist.

Once Ian got school approval, we started laying the ground work. I provide Ian with reading material but Ian took on the daunting task of going through Pierre' s database and selection possible plans. Ian and I exchanged a number of emails regarding his selections before he finally narrowed his selections to the following four plans: Australijski, AR_rued1_2mmgfk, Batrang and Flyingnote. Ian set to work at designing a boomerang using lightning bolts, a design that morphed from a three blade to a four blade. I thought the Australijski allowed him to pursue the artistic part of making boomerangs by providing a simple canvas. The Batrang I was originally worried about because of its many points, but I think we will do fine with it. I also though about making it in 4mm plywood rather than the larger version in 5mm. The larger one won out in the end. The AR_rued1_2mmgfk was a bit of a brain teaser until I figured out how it got named. I am guessing the "AR" stands for Australian Round, the "2mmgfk" is the thickness and material and the "rued" is part of the designers name. I have some G10 material but thought that for a first timer we needed to stick with plywood. We "guesstimated " a radius of 5.5 inches and used 4mm plywood.

Since Independence Day just passed, Ian thought about a boomerang that used a sparkler to light the night sky. I suggested he contact Bob Burwell, who I knew had experience with this type of boomerang. Bob sent Ian photos not only of the sparkler fitted boomerang, but also suggested alternates such as LED and cyclume light sticks. I don't know where we will go with that part of the project but time will tell. I haven't told Ian about trying to use "blinkies" yet. Blinkies are those crazy flashing lights you see in stores as pins and such. I think we could easily mount a couple in a boomerang for an exciting effect. Check out the night boomerang photos in the gallery at: http://journal.rcn.net/boomerangdave/gallery/226/

Thanks to those who posted comments, both Ian and I appreciate them and hope you will continue to post as we work our way through the project.

Dave
 
Photo: Ian with a few cut out blanks ready to sand.

I thought it would be best to have Ian know something mmore about boomerangs, how to make them and how they work. I got Ian copies of the Herb Smith book on making boomerangs and the Powerpoint presentation by Tom Connolley on how they work. Ian studied these as preparation for the project. He also looked at over 1000 boomerangs plans on Pierre Kutek's site (http://www.kutek.net/boomplans/plans.php) . Ian selected plans and had me review his selections. He finally narrowed down his selections to four from the database and one of his own design. The five designs range form a simple Australian style boomerang through to a 5 blade boomerang with a large center cutout. These should provide us plenty of work to make.


We printed out the plans and calculated how much to enlarge them, since they usually don't fit a standard sheet of paper. Ian cut the plans out and set to tracing two of each on on the 4mm or 5mm Finland Birch plywood we were using. Then the fun started. Ian had never used a jig saw before and here he was with expensive plywood trying to learn on cutting unusual shapes. Things went a little rough on the first boomerang but with a little coaching he got a steady hand and things improved with each cut. We got half the boomerangs cut out and decided the jig saw method was taking a lot of time to cut things right. We were trying to do some of the work in Ian's yard but I knew that a 14 inch bandsaw was in my garage that would make cutting the tough shapes much easier. Ian cut apart the remaining blanks so we could continue with cutting the next time. Even with me doing a little of the cutting to give Ian a rest, the jig saw does a lot aof vibrating and will wear out a newbie pretty fast. With the real purpose of the project being to teach Ian how to make boomerangs, I saw no point in torturing him when there were better tools and methods available. The jig saw is fine for one or two boomerangs at a time.


There is still a lot to do. We need to finish cutting the blanks, then sand the airfoils. Once we get that far we can test fly them to make sure they all work. After that we will finish sand them to get them ready to paint or decorate. Ian is a good artist so I am anxious to see how the final boomerangs turn out. This is a real fun time and Ian and I enjoy working together. We welcome your comments and suggestions about the project. Just click the + Add Comment link below the journal entry.


Photos from each session will be uploaded to a webshots album at: http://community.webshots.com/album/559798566cbHJMM

Photo: Ian cutting out a traditional design