>Steve "Does all this rebuilding count as putting together 2 aircraft?"
Genotte
If only you knew Steve! Even though my PFA (read EAA) inspector passed my
first (Mk.1) fin, I couldn't stand the sight of it - it was just_so_ugly -
that I bought another fin from Europa and made it up. Then, a year or two
later, I went and bought the XS fuselage kit which has its own fin. Anyone
want to buy a couple of fins? One perfect and one much less so! PS:
thought your rubber band idea was excellent.
Regards
Lloyd Owens
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Genotte <gopack@sprintmail.com>
Date: 20 February 1999 23:01
Subject: Re: Tailplane Layup
>Lloyd,
>
>Excellent tips. Thank you. I wasn't running any heat source near the
layup,
>but I do have the shop at 23 Centigrade (75 F.) However, I only use one
batch
>of epoxy per layup so there's less chance of "old" epoxy getting tossed
into
>the mix.
>
>BTW, as I look back I'm thinking I may have caused the cloth to pull away
while
>I was repairing two small raised areas. I wasn't sure how long it took to
heat
>up the cloth to get it plastic, so I had my heat gun (read: hair dryer) on
the
>area for several minutes. I may have transferred so much heat to the area
that
>I raised the forward section of glass without noticing it. That would
explain
>why neither my wife nor I noticed the "long" run of raised glass until this
>morning.
>
>As for the fix, I went really low tech. I used about a dozen wide rubber
>bands, arranging most along the width of the piece and the rest stretching
from
>TP-6 to the leading edge of the core. (Think of Gulliver being tied down
by
>the Lilliputians; same image.) I hit the area with some heat and watched
the
>high spots pull down under the tension of the bands. Once I get my
replacement
>syringes from Aircraft Spruce, I'll inject some epoxy into the area to fill
the
>small void space left behind. It ain't perfect, but it looks like it'll
fly.
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve "Does all this rebuilding count as putting together 2 aircraft?"
Genotte
>
>GERAINT L OWENS wrote:
>
>> >Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'm keen to hear any suggestions
>> >you may have concerning repair.
>>
>> Hi Steve
>>
>> Not sure about how to repair, but I caused the same problem to my own
work
>> in the early (and not so early!) days by 'force drying' lay-ups with too
>> strong a heat (ie. a 3kW fan heater). What happens is that the air
under
>> the lay-up expands with the heat and causes the kind of problem you
>> describe. I am now careful_not_to use too strong a heat, or to position
>> the fan heater far enough away so as to not cause the problem. This
may,
>> or may not, be what caused your problem; but this advice may save you
(and
>> others) learning the hard way. Other glassing tips:
>> 1 don't keep working the epoxy once it starts to get warm or go thick.
>> Throw it away, and mix up some more. Fresh epoxy is so much less
viscous
>> than 10/15 minute old epoxy and is _much_ less likely to cause bubbles in
>> your lay-up.
>> 2 once you've been using your brush for 10/15 minutes, don't squeeze
>> excess epoxy from the brush into your current epoxy cup. This 'old'
epoxy
>> will cause the fresh epoxy to go off quicker.
>> 3 for the same reason, don't keep using the same brush on a long
lay-up.
>> Brushes are cheap compared to your kit; so keep a handful by your side
each
>> lay-up ... and throw them away once they start to get a bit gunged-up
with
>> epoxy.
>> 4 don't do lays ups in conditions hotter than 20/22 centigrade (68/72
>> fahrenheit?). Your epoxy will go off prematurely if you do and make the
>> work much harder. Turn the heat up in your workshop just as you're
coming
>> to the last ten minutes of your lay-up ... then keep the heat up. Just
a
>> few of my own tips, learned the hard way, and not found in the Europa
>> manual. Regards.
>>
>> Lloyd Owens (Bu. 097) - possibly one of the slowest kits being built!!!
>
>
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