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  #11  
Old 01-16-2011, 12:19 PM
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rv9av8tr rv9av8tr is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Portland, OR
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Default Fiberglass tips....

Having built a Long-EZ, let me share some fiberglassing tips.

1. Once a FG part has fully cured, the only adhesion for subsequent glass layers is mechanical. The part should be sanded with at least 80 grit paper, preferably 36 grit. If the part was originally created using polyester resin, subsequent layups should be with polyester resin, not epoxy.

2. Please use a small ?Dixie? cup and popsicle stick for mixing, not a baggie.

3. Please don?t ?pre-preging? just one or two plies. Once glass cloth is wet with epoxy, controlling fiber orientation is like controlling wet toilet paper, unless it?s fairly thick (like 5 plies). Pre-preg on wax paper if you?re doing at least 5 plys. Transfer the glass to the part you?re applying it to, then peel off the wax paper.

4. Use a cheap 1? brush to apply a wetted out layer of pure epoxy to the component, then carefully apply the single ply of dry glass. Use the brush to stipple in the epoxy until wetted out. You can use a pliable rubber squeegee instead of the brush if you?re working with a larger flat surface. Then apply the next layer of glass cloth? repeat until you have the needed thickness. Wet out a strip of peel-ply over top the layup (all the way to the peel-ply edges) to make a smooth edge transition, or for leaving a rough surface for later applications of glass. (You don?t have to sand a previous layup if it has been peel-plied).

5. Please don?t cure wet epoxy in the oven at temps over 85-90 Deg F. At higher temps you run great risk of causing the epoxy to drain out of the cloth, resulting in a dry, non structural layup. You can use higher temps once the epoxy has cured to at least the tack free state. If you cure it out at 150 DegF, then application of heat to the part to reform it at a later time, will require heat greater than 150.

6. When faced with cold temps for wetting out FG, use a hair dryer on low temp to aide in wetting out the cloth. But be careful to prevent the cloth from becoming ?dry? by the epoxy draining out of the cloth.

7. And please, wear gloves when handling epoxy, the stuff can and will cause allergic skin reaction. It requires solvents to get epoxy off your skin, which will also act to dissolve the epoxy into your skin.

I was almost finished building my Long-EZ without allergic problems, then all of a sudden, it was AWEFUL (that was 1984). I almost didn?t finish the project because of the subsequent reactions to the epoxy. To this day, I break out like a poison oak rash if I get any of it on me.

All fiberglass components (like fairings) must have a tinnerman washer under the screw, otherwise in time, the screw head will work it?s way through the bare FG hole.
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  #12  
Old 01-16-2011, 04:33 PM
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N363RV N363RV is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Arlington, tx
Posts: 205
Default My wife gave me permission...

Amanda helped me build the 6A.... and with a nod from our friend who works at a composites company, let me bake the fiberglass.

I was required to fry up some bacon and scramble some eggs to go with that fairing.

Thankfully the 6A is a mostly metal airplane with very few glass components. But fixing these non structural components is really easy. A nice guy named Jay Pratt once told me that I was building an airplane and not the space shuttle. Just do it, have fun and try not to worry too much.
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  #13  
Old 01-16-2011, 07:24 PM
David-aviator David-aviator is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chesterfield, Missouri
Posts: 4,514
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N363RV View Post
Amanda helped me build the 6A.... and with a nod from our friend who works at a composites company, let me bake the fiberglass.

I was required to fry up some bacon and scramble some eggs to go with that fairing.

Thankfully the 6A is a mostly metal airplane with very few glass components. But fixing these non structural components is really easy. A nice guy named Jay Pratt once told me that I was building an airplane and not the space shuttle. Just do it, have fun and try not to worry too much.
Well, generally that's good advice but epoxy fumes are not harmless. There are some pretty complex chemicals floating around when that stuff is being mixed and is curing.

In a previous life, after sucking in epoxy fumes building a canard airplane, a routine chest x-ray and CAT scan revealed a large mass above the lungs - it was the thyroid gland enlarged about 5 times over. The consensus was it must be removed which a very skilled woman surgeon accomplished without much ado. The thyroid was not cancerous as feared, but that left no explanation as to why it had grown so out of control.

I know what caused it - epoxy fumes. It happened to at least one other guy - exact same thing - that's what he told me in an e-mail.

Don't get too relaxed with epoxy fumes. Doing a few small pieces probably is of no consequence but you really don't know how much of the stuff your body can tolerate.
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  #14  
Old 01-17-2011, 10:27 AM
Pilottonny Pilottonny is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Belgium
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Red face I used the oven ones too................

I wanted to cure some touch up of a fairing and put the part in the oven as well, on the lowest temperature the oven will do. Left it on for about half an hour and forgot about it for the time. When I got back in the kitchen to pick up the part, the wife was just ready to cook someting in the oven that she preheated to 225?C , without checking if there was anything in there of course! Well.........bubbles everywhere! now I had to completely resand, prime and repaint the fairing!

You better let the misses know what you are doing in her kitchen!

Regards, Tonny.
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