Warning: Some of the chemicals, tools and dust are very dangerous and you are advised to take ample precautions to deal with them. I will not be held responsible for any type of damage caused by following this procedure.

I am a complete novice to RC. After a months of research following countless number of blogs and youtube videos, I decided to build my quad. I think I have taken big risk. hope that pays off at the end. After all it is more fun and satisfaction to do as much as possible on your own and see the final results.

Here is my plan.
1. Build a 330mm frame using CF and Glass fiber
2. APM 2.6 board (I know it is bit complicated for a novice but I like to take complicated route)
3. FRSKY Taranis rx/tx (sourced from US, over provisioned but one time investment)
4. Sunnysky X2208 1260KV motors with 8x4.5 motors (from banggood.com)

I liked a 250mm quad but I felt tha,t I need to be very careful about the weight to achieve high efficiency and flight time, so decided to start with a 330 frame. I might be wrong here.

While all of the required parts are on the way, I purchased 6 of the 12mmx250mm CF tubes from quadkopters.com
Many forums suggested to go for a hybrid HX frame so that the length of each arm is minimal. It gives maximum strength.
Bought a compass box and a drawing sheet from a stationary shop and my engineering drawing kicked in. In the drawing I made sure the length of each arm is as minimal as possible for a 8 inch prop size. never bothered about whether the frame falls in 250mm or 330mm class

Now it was time to cut the CF tubes and file them in correct angle to fit the template on the plan. I had a dramel like tool and it came to a real help this time.
The tools used were, flat file, small round file, dramel like tool with cylindrical grinder and a diamond cutter.

At this point of time, It was really checking my patience and I felt of taking a wrong decision of building it myself. Didn't give up and decided to complete it in a week.

Now it was time to glue them together. Used Araldite 5min epoxy and it snapped off with little force. Changed to Fevitite 5min epoxy with same results. Decided to give a final try with Araldite blue color overnight epoxy and it worked very well. Joints were not super strong but it held up very well.

It was time to reinforce the joints with the plates. CF plates were hard to find and very costly. Glass Fiber was on my mind but I was not able to source it anywhere easily. I had few non working PCB from TV tuner cards and old wifi routers. It was time to recycle them. Used a hot air soldering station to remove all the surface mount components. Then cut them in appropriate shape.

My rotating tool again came to rescue. Used a couple of dust masks from local medical shop to avoid breathing the find dust. I didn't own a vacuum cleaner which would have vacuumed out the dust.

Once cut out the parts, I removed as much of traces as possible using vinyl cutter blade by carefully lifting the traces and pulling them. There were traces still remaining on the board. I filed out the solder mask using a file and sand paper to expose the copper.

Bought bathroom cleaner acid from local shop which I doubted to be HCL (Hydrochloric acid) and a bottle of H2O2 (Hydrogen peroxide) from a local medical shop. Put the plates in a plastic mug and added 1:2 of HCL and H2O2. My chemistry memory worked and the boards were clean after a bit of agitation.

again used the epoxy to glue the plates and left overnight to cure. Once cured, I had to thread the joints for further reinforcement. Kevlar thread is supposed to be touch and non elastic. I sourced (assumed kevlar) it from an long distance Ethernet cable. Tied the fiber to the frame and and soaked in epoxy. cured overnight.

Now waiting for my motors, rx/tx and APM to arrive. till then I would do some small modifications to the frame.

The frame arms are left long till the final take off and then I will trim them to right size.

Your comments and experience is highly appreciated.

Detailed tutorial will be hosted at the end of the construction on my blog http://prakashsidaraddi.blogspot.in/

More pictures

More pictures and reserved

Roboforcerx2000 style..
One tip for glueing- sand the surfaces well before glueing . U can use ca too for threads.

Inspired by

Yes, I have sanded the surfaces well. What do you mean by CA? feviquick? I had an impression that epoxy is better than feviquick.

Yes that guy.
His builds are very different and amazing. Been following him for more than a year.
But he uses a fret saw and ca-cyanoacrylate which is feviquick etc.
When it comes To glues all have there own application. For threads I think ca is better as it seeps inside while epoxy won't. A epoxy covering is good addition tho.

Thanks. I thought of using feviquick but I was not sure if feviquick can be covered with epoxy. I heated the epoxy using hot air gun after applying. I accidentally figured out that epoxy becomes thin when heated. Hope this holds well.

Need reviews or your experience on SKYRC Racingstar RS16 LiPo Charger. Is it worth the money? I would keep it even if I loose interest in RC hobby.
URL: http://www.banggood.com/Racingstar-RS16-180W-Or-16A-Balance-Charger-Or-Dsicharger-p-915246.html?zf=668014

Finalized and ordered SkyRC iMAX B6 Mini 6A/60W Professional Balance Charger/Discharger Along with temp sensor.