Draker
Well Known Member
I've decided to dive right into learning how to work with fiberglass by working on my -7's canopy fairing. Really confused at this point. I've been mostly following the RV-14 canopy fairing help video that Vans publishes, but working with the cut fiberglass is not going as nicely as it goes in the video.
My problem seems to be when pre-saturating the cloth with epoxy on the workbench, the cloth gets distorted and frayed every time I so much as touch it. And if I do manage to get the epoxy on it nicely, as soon as I peel it off my work surface, it gets wildly stretched and frayed. Nothing like the nice straight edge that the skilled craftsman in Vans' video ends up with. Every piece I work on looks like this after I peel it from the work surface:
(The above was more of a square piece when I cut it)
Any good techniques for making this stuff keep its shape and nice straight edge before applying to the airplane?
My problem seems to be when pre-saturating the cloth with epoxy on the workbench, the cloth gets distorted and frayed every time I so much as touch it. And if I do manage to get the epoxy on it nicely, as soon as I peel it off my work surface, it gets wildly stretched and frayed. Nothing like the nice straight edge that the skilled craftsman in Vans' video ends up with. Every piece I work on looks like this after I peel it from the work surface:
(The above was more of a square piece when I cut it)
Any good techniques for making this stuff keep its shape and nice straight edge before applying to the airplane?