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Re: Pre-skin Floxing

Subject: Re: Pre-skin Floxing
From: Fred Fillinger <fillinger@ameritech.net>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 21:56:07
I can make three points:

-- I've experimented with bonding together pieces
of cured and sanded fiberglass with the laminating
resin (Aeropoxy), Redux, and a structural adhesive
called Epolite.  Very enlightening.  Peel strength
not much, with Redux the best.  Suggests it's
clearly best to have a wet (chemical) bond. 

-- If you're also after "perfectly flat" skin over
the ribs to facilitate finishing, note that the
lap joints over the wing spar (plus poor fit of
the foam cores themselves) will necessitate at
least some weave-obscuring filler over about 50%
of chord.  This will hide a degree of imperfection
in the rib floxing. 

-- The way we did it:  I floxed the ribs about two
hours before my helper arrived.  So by the time we
got through the preliminaries and the micro
slurry, the flox started to gel.  In soft gel
form, you can still re-spread it or remove high
spots.  Brush epoxy over it for "lube", and use a
putty knife.  It will no longer sag as easily, and
you still get a chemical bond.  We touched it up
with more flox where needed and then laid on the
biaxial cloth.

Regards,
Fred Fillinger, A063

Tony Renshaw wrote:
> 
> Gidday,
> Advise on leading edge floxing sought from classic builders.
> I have a classic with the leading edge cores all setup for the big day.
> Only a few tidyup jobs to do and "on with the show". HOWEVER, I was
> wondering if I could get the collective wisdom of those that have gone
> before me.
> My question is this: "I want to flox the ribs in advance so that I have a
> perfectly flat surface to skin over.  (snip)


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