DIY Basic Glider (Wood, Cardstock Paper, Styrofoam)

Hello there.

Today I'm going to show you how to make a very basic DIY glider made with some wooden dowel rods, cardstock paper, and styrofoam.

Some disclaimers before I start any of this:

-This is my first time attempting to make an instructable, so excuse any gaffes in formatting.

-The camera I used can be...sketchy with how it focuses images, some might be a tiny bit blurry.

-Due to the previously stated camera issue, I used more glue than necessary to ensure that you could see the glue. As such, the cardstock will appear wrinkly due to excessive glue usage, don't use as much as I did.

- I measured this in inches. Sorry to any Europeans who want to make this, but you have to convert from Imperial.

To make this, you will need:

- Cardstock paper. preferably the common 8x11 inch sheets you can buy at any office store. At least 6 sheets are needed, but having extra in case of screw-ups can never hurt.

- Two 24 inch wooden dowel rods. I found a 48 inch dowel rod at a Home Depot and cut it in half, but pure 24 inch dowel rods can most likely be found and bought as well.

- 3/4 inch thick styrofoam sheets. I acquired some 13x13 inch sheets from a large packaging box, but you can probably buy these somewhere.

-Glue. Basic Elmer's Glue works for the whole project, but you can use a stronger glue if you wish to.

-A box-cutter. Box-cutters can make much more precise and smooth cuts than scissors, plus you cant exactly cut a 3/4 inch piece of styrofoam very easily with scissors.

-Tape. Painter's tape is preferred, but scotch tape will also work.

-A somewhat heavy object, like a paperweight. This will be brought up in more detail later.

-A round, metal object, such as a battery or a screwdriver shaft. This will also be brought up later.

-A long graphite rod from a mechanical pencil.

-A pencil.

-A ruler.

Before we even begin to build, we must perform some preliminary work. First, we will build a wing trace for wing braces.

Take a sheet of cardstock and tape the 11 inch sides together to create a mock-wing like the image above.

Then, measure the length and height of your wing, marking it down onto a sheet of cardstock with respect to the center of your wing shape, you should have made a sort of "sideways offset lower-case t". Then, connect all of the ends of your "t" as shown.

Then, using your box cutter, cut out your wing trace. Be easy and slow with the box-cutter to prevent tearing, fresh blades will make this process much easier.

Take one of your dowel rods and make a line directly in the middle. Then, make 2 more lines, each being spaced 1 inch away from the middle line on both sides, this dowel rod will serve as your wing spar.

Take your second dowel rod and mark a similar line approximately 1/3 of the length from one end (about 8 inches away from one end of the 2nd dowel rod). This will be the dowel rod on which the tail will be mounted.

In order to glue both of this dowel rods together, we will employ a very basic pressing method to create a groove on each dowel rod.

Remember how I said you needed a small, metal, cylindrical object? This is what will be used to create a groove.

Take your rounded object and the dowel rod with 3 lines, then press the rounded object onto the dowel rod on the middle line as shown. Leave the 2 other lines unpressed. You should have a notable indentation on the dowel rod.

(NOTE: If you are using a battery, do not use clamps for this, you can bend batteries. This image only exists to show you how you should press the object onto the dowel rod.)

Then perform this same method with the line you created on the 2nd dowel rod.

Now comes the first big step in the project, those 2 little indentations made in the previous step are going to come into play. Take some glue and put some on one of the grooves, next, line up your dowel rods so that both grooves are on top of each other as shown.

Remember that heavy object I told you we needed? Its time to use it.

Take your heavy object and gently place it on top of the intersection of your dowel rods so it presses both grooves together, allowing the glue to take hold.

Let your glue dry, and now both of your dowel rods should be together in the form of a wooden cross.

Now we begin the most important part of any glider: The wing.

Take your 3/4 inch styrofoam sheet and your wing trace, and place the wing trace on the sheet as shown.

Next, take your box-cutter and carefully cut the trace into the styrofoam, you do not need to cut through the entire sheet just yet, just make sure that you can visibly see the wing shape on the sheet when you are done.

Then, pull away the trace and just cut all the way through the sheet. You should then end up with a quarter inch thick styrofoam piece in the shape of your wing trace. Cut away any excess material.

Repeat this process 5 more times for a total of 6 pieces.

Now that we have all 6 wing pieces, we need to create a hole in each so we can slide them onto our wing spar to be glued.

First, take all 6 pieces and line them up, then use your tape to hold them together.

Next, take a graphite rod from a mechanical pencil and slowly press it into the middle of each wing. Each piece should now have a small hole directly in their centers, these will be our guide marks for the holes we will create.

Undo the tape from your wing pieces, then take 1 of your dowel rods and press it slowly into the center of 1 of your wing pieces where the guide mark is. Be sure you to go slow and gentle, styrofoam is soft and with some very light force and twisting, you should punch a hole the same size as the dowel rod through it. Repeat this process 5 more times for each wing piece until all 6 have a hole in them.

Remember those 2 extra lines I told you to make on the wing spar? Now we will use them.

Take a wing piece and slide it towards 1 of the lines, then take some glue and carefully place some either inside the hole of the styrofoam piece, or the part of the dowel rod where the piece will be, then slide it into place. Do this with the 2nd piece as well, only for the 2nd line.

You should now have 2 of your six pieces glued onto the dowel rod as shown in the 3rd image.

Make sure that the angles of your wing pieces are pointed slightly upwards, so that the wing will provide proper lift, as shown in the later taken 4th image.

Now we must add 2 more lines onto the dowel rod. Both of these lines will be halfway between the ends of our dowel rods, where the first 2 wing pieces are.

Next, glue the next 2 wing pieces where these new marking lines were drawn. Once those have glued and cured, glue the final 2 pieces to the very ends of the dowel rod. Your frame should now resemble the 2nd image.

Now comes the hardest part of this project.

Take 1 sheet of cardstock and align it with 1 of your wings as shown in the first image, making sure to also mark on the sheet where each styrofoam piece sits. Then take some glue and place it where you marked where the styrofoam pieces sat.

Next, place your wing back onto the paper in the same exact place, this should result in all 3 pieces being glued onto the paper, let the glue dry before continuing.

With the paper firmly glued onto the wing pieces, now we can wrap the paper around the pieces, creating a true wing.

Take some glue and run it along the end of the paper just behind the wing pieces as shown.

Next, take the other side of the paper and wrap it around the wing piece, connecting both ends as shown in the 2nd image.

Let the glue dry and congratulations! you made a wing. Now repeat steps 9-10 for the other wing, making sure that the 2nd wing is relatively symmetrical to the 1st one, and you will have completed the hardest segment of this project.

Compared to creating the wing, the tail is pretty straightforward

I wanted my tail to be 1/4 the size of the overall wingspan (24 inches) so I created the tail shown

Simply create this shape and cut it out with your box cutter.

The fin requires a bit more work than the horizontal tail segment.

We will first start by taping 2 cardstock sheets together as shown.

Then create the following shape in the second image and cut it out, making sure to cut through both cardstock sheets.

You should then wind up with 2 identical pieces.

Glue both pieces together above the dotted line seen on the 1st piece, leaving the area below the dotted line unglued.

Take your horizontal piece, flip it over to the unmarked side, and mark a point at the mid-length as seen in the 1st image.

Next, take your vertical fin and fold the unglued segments outwards.

Finally, glue the vertical piece to the horizontal piece, using the mark made on the horizontal piece as a reference point.

You should now have a completed tail.

Get your tape and cut (or tear) off 2 pieces long enough to wrap around the dowel rod and hold the tail in place.

Take the longer end of your non-wing dowel rod and tape the tail to the rod using the line created when drawing out the tail shape as a central reference.

Some of you might be wondering why we are using tape here. Truthfully, not all gliders are created equal, and a slightly larger or smaller tail may be more beneficial to your glider than it is to mine, it is much easier to just remove the tape and create a new tail than to have to put up with the ordeal of removing glued-on paper. Additionally, This is much more prone to tearing and breakage than the wing is, and the tape allows you to quickly and easily remove and replace the damaged part.

After all is said and done, you now have a basic glider. If it has a tendency to pitch down, add weight to the back. If it pitches up, add weight to the front.

This glider might not be the end-all be-all for basic glider construction, but its a fun little project to do if you have some spare time, or if you want to make yet another glider with some slightly different building methods.