Woohoo!!! We're finally at the last step of building the wing. The last step uses a piece of fiberglass tape to strengthen the joint between the two wing halves. Once again I will do something a little different that the instructions. The instructions call for using thin CA to secure the glass tape into position. There are two main reasons why I don't want to do this. The first reason is how hard CA becomes. It is just like a rock once it dries and is very hard to sand when we are finishing the plane. The second reason is the fumes. When you lay down this much CA you had better make sure yo have very very good ventilation because this is going to put out some awful fumes. You definitely don't want to be breathing in the fumes here, as they can cause some pretty serious breathing issues.

Before we can apply the glass tape to the wing joint we will need to do a little prep work. I'm talking about doing a little bit of sanding. I normally wait and do all the sanding at one time (I do this because I really don't like to sand, so I save it up and do it all at once!!). But because of the glass tape we will need to do a bit of sanding before we put the tape down. This is because once the tape is down it will be hard to dress up or sand out any imperfections under the tape. If you look at picture #1 you can see that the area of the top wing is a bit rough, and this is what we want to sand smooth before we put the glass tape down. I used a sanding block with 80 grit paper on it to rough sand this area down. We don't need to get this area completely smooth like we will do prior to covering the plane, we just need to get it all the joints and wood even so the tape will go on smoothly. Also, we only need to do this on the top of the wing. The reason for this is because the bottom of the wing will be hidden inside of the fuselage so the appearance isn't as critical as the top of the wing will be.

I probably should have talked about this in the beginning of this build thread, but here's a note about safety with epoxy. You really want to avoid getting the epoxy on your hands while you are working. In some places that you use epoxy you won't really need to get your hands near the epoxy, but since we will be working on putting the fiberglass tape in position there's a pretty good chance that we'll get some on our hands. That's why I wear the gloves you see in picture #4. I got these gloves at Hobby Lobby (the craft store, not the hobby shop), but you can find similar gloves at Lowe's or even Wal-mart. Picture #5 shows another great little tool that I like to use. Yes, that is the door key from a motel. They make great squeegees for spreading and removing excess epoxy. I'm always on the lookout for these things. A great source for them are all the credit card offers that come in the the mail that come with a “sample” card. I have no use for the credit cards, but I save the cards to use when I build.

I used 30 minute epoxy to put down this tape. I chose 30 minute so I would have enough time to get the all worked before the epoxy set. I marked roughly the area where the tape will sit, and then I used an epoxy brush (picture #6) to apply a thin layer of epoxy on the wing (I started at the edge of the aileron servo and work around the wing and ended back at the aileron servo cutout). Lay the tape into the epoxy you just put down (picture #7), use the epoxy brush to get the tape “settled” into the epoxy. Also use the brush to apply more epoxy to the top of the tape, you want to get enough epoxy to fill the weave of the tape. Keep working in this manner all the way around the wing (picture #8). Once you have the tape in place use the card to squeegee the tape (picture #9 and #10). This will get the excess epoxy off of the tape, and will also help get the epoxy worked into the weave of the tape. Do this all the way around the wing. If you do a good job of using the squeegee the glass should be very thin with just enough epoxy in it to fill the weave, and will make sure there are no “bumps” of epoxy that would need sanded off later. Pictures #11 and #12 show the finished product. If you look carefully you can see how thin the epoxy is after using the squeegee to get the excess epoxy out of the weave.

Whew!!!! Finally, the wing is done now and all the posts are written up on it. Great! Tonight we'll start on the fuselage and keep working on this project.

Pictures
1. Rough wing needs sanded prior to applying the fiberglass tape.
2. Joints between wood panels will need to be sanded smooth.
3. Preparing to apply the glass tape.
4. A pair of rubber gloves will protect your hands from getting epoxy on them.
5. Hotel door keys make great tools for applying epoxy.
6. Use an epoxy brush to lay down a thin layer of epoxy.
7. Lay the glass tape down in the epoxy layer.
8. Working around the wing with the epoxy tape.
9. Using the door key to squeegee out excess epoxy.
10. Using the door key to squeegee out excess epoxy.
11. Finished glass tape on wing joint.
12. Finished glass tape on wing joint.



Until next time

Ken