| day |
notes |
hours |
| 10 |
Peel off port flap root peel-ply. Knock off hinge jig, with some difficulty as some epoxy resin has crept under it in a couple of places. Clean up most of Isopon polyester resin that was securing hinge jig. |
360.7 |
| 24 |
About 16C although under 60% RH, so turn on both fan heaters.Trim port flap root closeout with diamond wheel on angle-grinder and file down flush. File off excess epoxy resin from outside surfaces. Reverse flap on table so tip overhangs south end. Trim a piece of scrap foam to fit between flanges as an anvil for cutting FL3 slot. Cut BID for tip closeout: 1 off 230x130mm, 3 off 390x130mm. Rub zinc chromate primer off exposed end of FL3 with Scotchbrite. The effort required gives a good feeling about how well the rest will stay on. Lightly abrade inner glass faces of flange with fine Perma-Grit. Temperature up to about 19C. Mix 1 stroke epoxy with 1 dose q-cell for slurry and paint on. Careful choice of brush means almost none goes on the glass faces. Mix 2 strokes epoxy, paint inside of flanges with it, then apply and wet out first BID layer. Try to minimise amount of resin applied, as the drooping problems on the root were almost certainly caused by too much resin. Scissor trim with Tuff-Kut scissors - much easier as they are slightly serrated and the angled handles make access better. Apply and wet out 2nd layer. Put foam block into position against root face and press against underside of flange. Cut slot with fresh blade in scalpel, using a sawing action with the point going well into the foam so that glass strands get cut rather than pushed aside. Perfect job, and glass does not tend to stick to foam on removal as I feared it might. Mix 1 stroke epoxy and 1.5 doses flox. Re-scuff FL3 with Scotchbrite and immediately insert and butter all over with flox.
Clamp in position
instead of relying on bulldog clip as previously. Make flox fillets around and in hole of FL3. Mix 2 strokes epoxy and apply short BID layer and final layer, scissor trimming each. Cut green peel-ply into strips and apply to whole closeout area. Looks much neater than root end; obviously with no FL7s less flox is involved, but possibly the lower temperature helped slow down resin curing and thus allow better wetting-out - or maybe I'm still learning. Certainly difficult to squeegee in closeouts so best to avoid excessive resin in the first place. Erect curing tent with heater set to 3 and leave overnight at about 27C, 35% RH. |
365.2 |
| 25 |
Switch off heat and take down curing tent. Knock off jig with some effort - the right-angle support leg had an excessively large area of Isopon under it. Peel off peel-ply and trim edge with angle-grinder & diamond wheel. File down flush and clean up epoxy weeps onto outer surface, and remains of Isopon. Do trial setup of FL2 with nylon line for alignment and all seems well. Line seems quite stretchy so can tension it quite well to ensure it is straight. Find a couple of short lengths of aluminium angle to use as supports while curing. One needs to be sprung closed in the vice to more like a right-angle. Set up with angles cramped each side of FL2 and get alignment correct. Remove line, keeping FL2 and angles cramped, and mark where surface of flap should be on FL2. Uncramp and apply masking and parcel tape as for FL1 & FL3. Abrade butt end of FL2 with Scotchbrite to remove zinc chromate primer. Mix 2 strokes epoxy with 2 doses of flox to make a slightly less stiff mixture than for FL7 etc. Work some into the flap slot, taking time to ensure it is covering all inner surfaces with some lying on the bottom. Abrade FL2 butt end again and immediately butter flox onto it. Slide slowly into slot, adding flox to fill centre hole as it goes down. Put small pieces of polyethylene sheet against FL2/flap angle to stop ali pieces bonding to it. Cramp aluminium angles lightly and string alignment line. Correct alignment and tighten cramp. Add a couple of lead weights to keep it all from shifting about fore and aft too easily. Re-check alignment several times. Erect curing tent, taking great care to avoid touching alignment line or FL2. Re-check alignment again after tent up. Leave to cure. |
368.3 |
| 26 |
Switch off heat and take down curing tent. Photograph alignment line and fittings. FL2 seems now to be very slightly low of the correct position, but only by about the thickness of the scribed line on the perspex disc. Cut line to remove, as clamping screws have disorted line too much to slide fittings off. On boresighting the hinge-plate holes, the far two align when viewed from just below centre of FL3 hole (with flap still upside down), confirming what the line was showing. However, it's such a tiny misalignment that it is probably nothing to worry about. Peel off the masking tape and parcel tape from all hinge plates and remove scraps from edge next to flap, taking extreme care not to scratch hinge plates. Remove port flap to trailer and store inside fuselage to prevent hinge plates getting knocked. Move most of redundant foam to trailer to make more space in garage. Put starboard flap upside down on upper jigs on layup table. |
369.1 |
| 28 |
Dig out closeout foam from root and tip of starboard flap. Find it goes quite well using the old chisel. Remove peel-ply tapes from inner surfaces of glass flanges. Reverse support brackets on hinge jigs. Mark out fore and aft limits of all 3 hinge slots. Buy polyester resin filler from Halfords (U-Pol EasyLite) and extra hardener. |
371.1 |
| 29 |
Mark out full outline of all 3 hinge slots on starboard flap. Rout them out near to size with the Dremel router, then file to final size. Drill out the brown foam in the centre slot with a long 4mm drill bit in the cordless drill, and use a 3.5mm long drill bit as a hand scraper to clean off the bottom. Easiest to monitor progress with a light underneath the flap. Set up jigs and check position of FL2. Angle a bit more off aft end of slot to get correct alignment. Mix up some poly resin filler and bond jigs to flap, keeping tip one true with a square while left to set. Order some stuff from
CSM Just Abrasives
including fine Webrax (like ScotchBrite), Perma-Grit round swiss file and ultrafine wet-n-dry paper selection. |
372.5 |
| 31 |
CSM
order arrives, less Perma-Grit rod cutter for Dremel. |
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