DHG
Posts: 896
Joined: 4/24/2002
From: Denver,
CO, USA
Status: offline
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Stan,
I'm using 0.014" Mylar; I think I got it from Aerospace Composites or FibreGlast, Inc. -- can't remember now.
I've only used it for wings, but if you were clever you might be able to use it on the flat parts of a Q500 fuselage mold. The main drawback of Mylar is that it won't follow compound curves. But as you've discovered when vacuum-bagging, it does simple curves beautifully, and smooths out minor imperfections.
I use it as a mold liner because my molds are fiberglass, and sometimes I've had release issues. When that happens, you've got to clean the "stuck" stuff out of the mold, which means you take the risk of gouging & scuffing the mold, and/or trying to repair the inner surface. At best, that leads to more release problems later, and at worst, it permanently changes the airfoil. With the Mylar liners, all you do is lift the wing out of the mold and if the Mylar comes with it, just peel it away later. It's flexible, unlike the mold itself. And if it gets messed up, you can just scrap it and cut a new piece.
I always do the "feather edge" T.E., so it's a simple matter of allowing the Mylar to extend back behind the T.E. For the L.E. and the tips, you can do it one of two ways: Either add those later and carefully blend them into the molded part of the wing, or if you wanted do it all as a one-shot, you'd need to lay up the mold over your plug with the Mylar sheets in place on the flat areas. Then the finished mold would have a recessed area with a .014" lip at the edge where the Mylar was, and you'd re-insert the Mylar when you were ready to mold a new wing.
D.
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RE: Seeker Wing Mold - 
