First time glassing... need some advice.

Looking at the West Systems 105 epoxy with 206 hardener...

Good choice?

How much should I need of each? I'm doing an 85" - 1/5.5 scale warbird.

Neo

I have not used the West Systems stuff. There is some other posts on glassing here that may be helpful.

Neo,

The West System numbers you have listed are a good choice,
they cure overnite and sand great. Use the 205 hardner if
you want a real fast set-up times. Get the 32 oz. resin and
the 7 oz hardener(s). Make sure you get the pumps, takes
all the guess work out of mixing.

Darrell

Thanks, you think a quart will be enough resin huh??? I'd hate to have to buy a second quart, since two separate quarts cost almost as much as buying a gallon... but I don't want to buy anymore than I need. It'll be a while before I glass again.

What do you think about doing the whole plane in 3/4 oz glass cloth? I just did my first crack at it on a tailwheel pant yesterday (using finishing resin) and boy that 3/4 oz stuff just seems so thin! Once I put the finishing resin on it the cloth just seemed to dissapear. Hard to believe it's enough. I don't know about going up to the 2oz stuff though... opinions??

Neo

Werner Kopp from Propwash Videos has a verry informative tape on glasing with 3/4 oz and thined down resin,that you may consider geting befor you start.
Wayne

Why use that expensive West systems epoxy? I have had excellent results with EnviroTex from an art, or decorators supply outlet. It is much cheaper, sands really well and gives a beautiful finish. It was recommended by Dan Parsons in his paper on glassing. I tried it and have never used anything else.

Vince

the west systems is the best stuff to use for warbird application,asBig Retracts said make sure to get the pumps. And Yes the quart size is enough to do 2 planes.don't go any larger on the cloth size as 3/4 ounce is plenty.

NEO:

I use the West Marine resin. It is great stuff. The amount recommended by Darrell should be more than enough to do the SBD. I use 3/4 oz cloth on the fuse and 1 or 2 oz cloth on the wings. It is not that much heavier and it gives better hangar rash protection to the leading and trailing edges of your wing. If you wanted to use 3/4 oz cloth on the wing, you could add another layer of 3/4 oz cloth around the leading and trailing edges of the wing to give you some extra ding resistance. The seam sands out easily.

Another alternative to using resin is the Minwax water-based polyacrylic. I have read many post of others using this technique with great results. I tested it over the holidays on the elevators of a Tucano I am building and liked the results. It is much cheaper than resin and less messy and the results seemed to be equal. For this test I used 3/4 oz coth. On one elevator I used two coats of West Marine resin; first coat to adhere the cloth to adhere to the surface, second coat mixed with microballons to fill in the weave. On the other elevator I used the three coats of polyacrylic; first coat to adherer the cloth to the surface, second coat started to fill in the weave, third coat mixed with micro balloons to completely fill in the weave. Both elevators were wet sanded with 240 grit sand paper and the results were equal. I do not have a scale small enough to weigh the elevators to see if there was any difference in weight but they feel about the same. It took two days to get to get the end results with the resin and about 4 hours to get the results with the polyacrylic. I think I will be switching to this technique.

I also just switched to the west systems on my last jet, sands like primer, good stuff! I used Zpoxy last time, Im not going back!

Kirk,

Sent you p.m.

John

k_sonn,

Thanks for the info... I'd much rather use the water-based stuff to keep the fumes, mess and cost down. However, I've heard some horror stories about guys that have used it on wings and the moisture soaked into the wing sheeting causing the "wave effect." That's pretty scary. I'd hate to have it ruin a wing just to save a the stinky mess of applying epoxy-based resin.

My lucks not the best and it's my first crack at this, so I should probably stick with the West Systems stuff... never heard a single bad word/experience about it.

Neo

the water stuff will do exactly that! who said the epoxy stinks? west system epoxy doesn't smell any differen't or stronger than white glue for that matter.The only stuff that really stinks is dope and that stuff reeeeeeeks!!

I've been doing my research in light weight glassing techniques over the holidays... searching RCU, seaching the internet, e-mailing questions to the experts, what not. The major criteria for my research is light weight.

So far I've found two acceptable light weight methods from members here on RCU... Branded's method and ProfLooney's method.

Branded's method
1st coat: Thinned epoxy (seals wood from water content of next layers preventing warps)
Next few coats: Water-based polyurethane
Next few coats: Water-based polyurethane w/ microballoons

ProfLooney's method
1st few coats: Lacquer based sanding sealer (prevent wood from soaking up too much ployurethane, reducing weight)
Next 4-6 coats: Lacquer-based polyurethane

Correct me if I'm wrong, guys. ProfLooney has a great website explaining his method (http://home.mchsi.com/~jahuntley/help.html).

The key to light weight is to use as little epoxy as possible, or none at all. Epoxy = Heavy.

Juice

Hey enough already. I to have give up on Zap finishing resin. It is too thick and if you thin it down with either rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol it becomes like rubber. It will not harden if duluted. I to wanted a new method and am now glassing my new Giant Corsair with the water based polyurathane. Even Nelson aircraft has recomended this method using thier water bassed clear. You can buy a quart at Wally World (Walmart) for a few bucks and have enough to do almost two large birds. And as said before it dries in minutes. I covered my entire fuse in just a couple of hours and that is with two coats. Only caution is to go sparingly on the first coat so you do not warp the wood surface. Also if you are glassing directly over foam go back to the epoxy method.
Well thats my 2 cents worth.
As you can see thier are many ways to skin a cat and they are all good methods