VincentJ

Thanks Tom. I wanted to use one ounce cloth but had trouble finding it. My LHS had this in stock so being the impatient person that I am decided to give it a go. Still very light and conforms beautifully to any shape.

Leroy Gardner

Surprised to see you useing 1 1/2 oz. cloth when 3/4 oz. is usually most often used and even 1/2 oz. as I did on the Mustang, fuse of SW was done with 3/4 oz and nitrate dope filled with Dap spackle. Z-poxy is very popular for doing this, mainly because it is low odor and almost non toxic as well as produce a harder surface, great if doing any Flite Metal. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's lighter than other resins and does sand easier.

Vincent you always think things through and calculate your weights just like having a target finished weight with the products you choose, there is another lesson right there that many could benifit from. Good that you are doing this and showing how easy it can be done as many struggle with it, great presentation as is all you do.

Leroy

raptureboy

Agreed on the weight of the glass. 3/4 oz is plenty and you can order it here https://fiberglasswarehouse.com

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks for the link. I used to buy my 3/4 oz cloth from Dan Parsons.

I suspect that Vincent's weight might be a whole 3 ounces more using the heavier cloth, but a whole lot stronger.

I also have a flying buddy that uses acetone rather than alcohol to thin his epoxy for covering. The claim is that it is stronger than when done with alcohol but I don't think that is an issue for covering. I just listen, read, and try to steal better ideas.

VincentJ

Oops, made a mistake. I misinformed all of you. I showed that I used 1-1/2 ounce cloth for my covering, when in reality I had used 1/2 ounce cloth. I am sorry for the mistake... As I had stated earlier, I had wanted to use 1 ounce cloth but it wasn't readily available at my LHS at the time of purchase.

Jim, I would stick with the Alcohol instead of Acetone for health reasons alone. I have Acetone in my shop and it does have its place, but you do have to be careful with vapors and skin absorption.

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Vincent, you used 15cc of the resin and 15cc of the hardener. How much alcohol was used? Dan.

TomCrump

Whatever weight cloth was used, your fuselage looks great, VJ !

VincentJ

Thanks Tom...

Dan I used 15cc of resin + 15cc of hardener + 30cc of denatured alcohol. With a batch of 60cc made, I had more than enough to do the complete bottom of my fuse with some left over. Mix what you think you will need to cover your area, just keep the ratios the same.

maekju

The edges of the cloth are so neat. How to you keep the edges of the coth from fraying?

VincentJ

LOL, that's where the sharp scissors come in Maekju! Another trick that works to keep the edges from fraying would be to cut your cloth on the bias, I couldn't do it on a piece this large though...

Leroy Gardner

You can get fray free lines if you tape them first, after it dries sand the edge of tape to cut the cloth and pull the tape, feather edge lightly and tape for second course allowing 1/8" over lap, repeat the sanding of tape line pull it and blend in the joint and you will never even know one is there. I use 3M 2080EL low tack fine line tape for this, Home Depot has it and you will love it.

Leroy

VincentJ

Got all the cloth on the fuse with the exception of the removable tail section, which I plan on doing. The canopy and landing gear covers did get a second coat of finishing resin, ratios just as I did with the first coat.

stevegauth30

Boy, your getting close too VJ. You sure build a clean looking bird.

VincentJ

Thanks Steve, it would go a lot faster if I could find TIME... My student competition obligations will end in a couple of weeks, so till then it's full speed SLOW. I shouldn't complain I'm happy that I'm making any kind of progress.

TomCrump

Vincent. With the end of classes, do you get the Summer off ?

Your glassing looks good.

I did a pair of wing struts the other day, but I used polyurethane instead of laminating resin. It's just something different for me to experiment with, to see how well it works.

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

Tom, I tried that a few years ago and found it somewhat weaker. That was a 1 time test, never repeated.

TomCrump

It may be, but I'm not interested in strength. I just want a good surface to lay paint on. It should suffice for that.

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Vincent,
Did you scuff up the first coat of finishing resin before you applied the second one or did you just brush the second coat right over it? How much of the Z-poxy did you use for the entire plane? Thanks, Dan.

stevegauth30

Tom, I experimented a lot with polyurethanes. I like the wbpu . It may be slightly weaker that laminating resin, maybe, but provides a good surface for paint. And so much easier and cheaper. I may do a future project with it. My current project I used west systems and really liked it.

VincentJ

Dan, since there was no excess on the first coat of resin, I saw no need to sand. I simply applied the second coat on top of the first coat. Before I apply the third coat of resin I will sand as the second coat has started to fill the weave. I am surprised at how little resin I have used thus far. I will at the end of my glassing will go over how much resin (Z-Poxy) I have used. I can tell you this much, I have been throwing away just about as much as I have been using with each mixed batch...

Tom I have heard of people using Poly instead of resin to fill the weave, should work well for you if you're not looking for strength. By glassing my fuse, it got strong real quick. Exactly what I was looking for...

VincentJ

I put the second coat on the entire fuse. You can see that I started out with 2 oz. of mixed finishing resin, you can also see how much I had left over. Keep in mind 30cc's of Denatured Alchohol will evaporate from the mix as well a what will be removed from sanding. I believe that when all is said and done the weight of glassing this airframe will be equivalent to covering it in plastic. The additional weight will be the paint. Pound for pound I'll be OK with that knowing I'll have a stronger airframe...

TomCrump

I glassed my Focke Wulf and Stuka with WBPU. It does the job, but I feel that one should wait at least a week after applying it, before spraying primer over it. I'm not comfortable with any shorter time frame. My concern is that water vapor could easily be trapped under a lacquer based primer, and create blisters in a finished paint job, when the airframe spends time in the sun.

Unfortunately, I have some experience with this.

The oil based poly seems to allow for less time before primer can be applied. Even though I have two ongoing builds, I'm not patient enough to wait for WBPU to thoroughly dry. Having a desire to press on, I used the oil based poly and moved forward.

My preference is to use z-poxy, though. This time, I didn't have an open package. I didn't want to open one just to use a small amount.

Melchizedek

Vincent,

I am with you with the glassing. I glassed both my first 2 planes before covering them with monocot.
If you look at the wreckage of my Kadet closely you will see wing and tail feathers in tact.
That plane lawn darted at about 60 mph maybe more. The shock was enormous.
The framing of the tail feathers was glassed then glass cut out of all open areas.
I believe glass gussets/web on every joint kept hor and vert stab together.
Wing was done same way. It came thru with out a scratch.

The other thing is push thru on the thin balsa.

Anyway just my opinion.

Can't wait till you begin putting paint on her.

Kevin

out2pasture

Hi Vincent,

This is really interesting. I've never heard of anyone cutting the epoxy with so much alcohol. I have a couple of questions. Are there any runs from the second coat? Did you happen to weigh the fuselage before glassing? Did the epoxy harden OK with all the alcohol? I'll have to try this on my current project.

Thanks,
Mike

VincentJ

Mike, don't be afraid to cut it with the denatured alcohol, your first coat will wick into the balsa not leaving any visible epoxy on top. This is good as it will make the underlying wood rock hard as the glass. The second coat that I applied didn't run, but you do have to be careful not to put too much on or it will run on you. Since Z-Poxy sands so well don't get too concerned about runs as they can easily be sanded out. No problems with the curing of the epoxy, just keep the temp up in your shop and you're good to go, but seeing as your from CA that's an issue that you won't have to deal with.

I should have weighed the fuse before starting, but I forgot to. Regardless, if I hit my target weight of 16 pounds I will be very happy...

Kevin, I can't wait for the paint to be applied as well. Colors are already picked!