Originally Posted by
slampert
EDIT
Going back a few steps, despite many distractions and diversions, I'm precisely at the point in my Evolaris build of being ready to prep the stabs and wings. I cut and capped the stabs but haven't yet cut out and finished the ailerons.
Weight is a significant concern on this build, especially since I'm planning on using a V3 Contra. I'm also concerned about any finishing techniques that increase the possibility of introducing warps into the structure. Your workarounds, described above, seem well conceived, but you know how light and fragile the wings on this bipe are. The out of box weight of my top one piece wing is an impressive 10.5oz ! It occurred to me that perhaps I should get the wings to the "final sanding before priming stage, " and then cut out and cap the control surfaces. Besides having to blend the leading and trailing edges of the control surfaces do you see a downside to this idea ?
EDIT.
Steve, for what it's worth, my built up panels for my Delta are lightly built too. I don't know how large your Evolaris wings are (I'm guessing 600 squares) but my Delta panels are 470 squares a piece. I left the ailerons in until I had the carbon tissue and the top layer of Jap tissue bedded. It's the better way to do light structures, stabilizing them to an extent. But bows can still creep into control surfaces when they are cut out. As Pat sez, you just deal with them
The carbon tissue (0.2 oz) added about 8 grams to each panel (both sides, 940 squares) and the medium Esaki Jap tissue added about 12 grams to each panel. I used nitrate dope for mine (2 coats of 50% thinned directly onto the wood to prep, and then 2 coats of 75% thinned and all thinner in some areas to bed the tissues). I expect lacquer to work similar to nitrate dope. I've not used the water based acrylic Min Wax that Pat uses to bed the tissues on wood surfaces (only on foam) so have nothing to offer on this material.
The carbon tissue adds a lot of torsional stiffness and is highly recommended for the thin Evolaris ailerons. However it is almost all holes and takes a lot of work and alot of weight to fill it. So I didn't bother to fill mine but rather simply covered the carbon with paper tissue. You should also lay down a layer of paper over the top to make filling and finishing easier. You might consider using carbon over the ailerons only and then paper over the whole wing. I think you'd be ahead weightwise in the end. And if you decide to try the light silkspan as the top covering, weight build up will be less than my 12 grams per panel. Plus it takes less work and weight to fill light silkspan, as I mentioned before.
We can discuss all the little details directly with email. I'd rather not take away from Pat's thread any more.