September 19, 2006
Yesterday, I laminated one of the spar booms for the main stabilizer spar. I used Aerolite because I couldn't guarantee 70 degrees needed for resorcinol for the time period required. It's warm during the day but at night it cools down and resorcinol takes a while to cure at lower temperatures. The metal L-brackets hold the wood in the correct spar shape and vertical. I put some weight near the ends where there were less L-brackets to hold it vertical and that was all it needed. There are little strips of wood to raise it off the surface to give the glue a place to go and still keep the spar flat. It saves time later to clean off the squeezed out glue from the top and bottom after clamping. Aerolite doesn't require too much clamping pressure so I didn't use any pads between the clamp and the wood other than the pads already on the clamps, and that was fine.
Today, I removed all the clamps and marked the wood so I knew where to put it back once it was ready for the rest of the spar. I leveled all the glue squeeze-out on the top and bottom and carefully used an electric planer to clean the glue off the bottom surface. This left a nice flat smooth surface. I just sanded the top surface because I didn't want to take off any more material and it will be mostly tapered anyway.
This Thursday, I'll be heading up to the West Coast Falco Fly-In, up in Bend, Oregon. I'll be meeting Doug Henson and his beautiful Falco up in Oakland and will occupy his right seat for the trip "there and back again" from Oregon. Needless to say, I'm extremely excited, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and videos to put up on the website afterwards. I'll resume with the other spar boom afterwards.
|
Tail Parts Menu
|
Home