>Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'm keen to hear any suggestions
>you may have concerning repair.
Hi Steve
Not sure about how to repair, but I caused the same problem to my own work
in the early (and not so early!) days by 'force drying' lay-ups with too
strong a heat (ie. a 3kW fan heater). What happens is that the air under
the lay-up expands with the heat and causes the kind of problem you
describe. I am now careful_not_to use too strong a heat, or to position
the fan heater far enough away so as to not cause the problem. This may,
or may not, be what caused your problem; but this advice may save you (and
others) learning the hard way. Other glassing tips:
1 don't keep working the epoxy once it starts to get warm or go thick.
Throw it away, and mix up some more. Fresh epoxy is so much less viscous
than 10/15 minute old epoxy and is _much_ less likely to cause bubbles in
your lay-up.
2 once you've been using your brush for 10/15 minutes, don't squeeze
excess epoxy from the brush into your current epoxy cup. This 'old' epoxy
will cause the fresh epoxy to go off quicker.
3 for the same reason, don't keep using the same brush on a long lay-up.
Brushes are cheap compared to your kit; so keep a handful by your side each
lay-up ... and throw them away once they start to get a bit gunged-up with
epoxy.
4 don't do lays ups in conditions hotter than 20/22 centigrade (68/72
fahrenheit?). Your epoxy will go off prematurely if you do and make the
work much harder. Turn the heat up in your workshop just as you're coming
to the last ten minutes of your lay-up ... then keep the heat up. Just a
few of my own tips, learned the hard way, and not found in the Europa
manual. Regards.
Lloyd Owens (Bu. 097) - possibly one of the slowest kits being built!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Genotte <gopack@sprintmail.com>
Date: 20 February 1999 17:11
Subject: Tailplane Layup
>Y'all,
>
>I completed the first of the tailplane layups and ran into a snag. A
>section of the bid that runs from 2 inches forward of the rib's leading
>edge to the midpoint of the core's leading edge in the bottom rebate did
>not stay down during the cure. At first I thought there were only a
>couple of high spots but further examination revealed otherwise.
>
>It looks like I've been able to heat and clamp down the majority of this
>run, but I'm not sure what to do with the leading edge. I don't have
>any clamp that can grip this well; the slope of the airfoil at this
>point causes them to slide right off.
>
>Has anyone else had a similar problem? I'm keen to hear any suggestions
>you may have concerning repair.
>
>'Till then,
>
>Steve Genotte
>
>
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