August 29, 2006

I've just been biding my time here before I get some more supplies that I need. I cut out and fit the plywood skins for the forward fin spar. This spar will have some totally enclosed surfaces so one thing I need to come up to speed on is varnishing. All wood surfaces of the plane will be covered with either glue, varnish, or fiberglass and paint, in order to protect the wood from moisture. In my case I'll use West System Epoxy to varnish. I need to get some supplies to do this. On these interior surfaces that will rarely come into contact with water, one coat of un-thickened epoxy will do. I traced the interior shapes on both sides of the plywood so that I can mask off the gluing surfaces and varnish the other surfaces for the closing plywood, and also know where the interior structure is. Today, I glued the first plywood cover of the forward fin spar. I'll have to varnish the inside surfaces and the non-gluing surfaces of the closing plywood before I glue on the other side.

I also glued an extra little strip of spruce at the top of the spar because I sanded a little too much off before. I re-measured and shaped it right again.

Also, I really want to put the plywood cover on the elevator spar before I take it out of the jig, to make it a little more rigid. I don't have the right plywood to do this, so I need to take inventory and see what I need so I can get a bunch of plywood at the same time. After that, I can continue on with the last two tail spars.

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