Dart373

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This is the first time I have built a set of floats... I sheeted foam floats and am covering them now....per instructions from the hobby shop. I kind of wanted to paint them... Thats my first question... what do you cover balsa sheeted foam floats with ? Paint would be heavy... But I am nervous about the monokote sealing these things.
Next, how do you know where to attach the landing gear struts ? I have them built, no problem there, but how do you kow? Keep mocking them up and put them in the pond?? Anyways, thanks.

seaplane

The location of the struts is not as important as the location of the step in relation to the CG of your plane. Keep the step under your CG or a little behind it. Your floats should be long enough so there is a couple inches of float in front of your prop. Keep the tops of the floats parallel with the bottom of a flat bottom wing or set them so there is a slight positive incidence wing angle when the tops of the floats are horizontal. Also mount the plane high enough to achieve 2-3 inches between the bottom of the prop arc to the top of the floats. Space the floats apart about 1/4 your wing span and keep them parallel. With all this done, choose your best/easiest strut mounting. I make and sell balsa sheeted-foam core floats and I've painted them, covered them with MonoKote, and fiberglassed them. All work well. Bottom line, you must water proof them and fuel proof them if you are non-electric. If you anticipate that you will beat up the bottoms a bit, I'd suggest fiberglassing at least the bottoms...........Seaplane

Dart373

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What matt # did you use ? I really dont know much about fiberglass and don't really want to learn unless needbe. I am interested in painting them. What primer/paint did you use on that balsa ??? It seems it would just sponge up the paint.

seaplane

For the fiberglass matt I use what I can get at a reasonable price, usually 3/4 oz. The paint I use is made by Rustoleum and is called Painters Choice (I think). I'm wintering in Florida and don't have the paint with me. Anyway, it's Painters ??? and is fuel proof. I use the brush on as you say the balsa really soaks it up. Next time I'm going to apply some water based polyurethene first them the paint....Seaplane

Dart373

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Thanks. I'll search around for the matt and resin today. I have worked with fiberglass enough to cover them. Then painting should be a breeze. Once fiberglass is on , it should be very easily painted.

JimCasey

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DOn't use polyester resin. You'll know it because it has a sweet smell. Epoxy smells like scorched beans. But epoxy won't eat foam, and polyester will.

Check out this site:
http://www.flyinglindy.homestead.com/skisandfloats.html
If you click on the Chuck Cunningham article it will blow up to legible size. It's the best source of "HOW TO" for floats ever written.

Dart373

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Jim, it does not matter which expoy I use now. I sheeted the foam per instructions. Thanks, The epoxy is dry enough to sand. I see how this stuff goes on, thin layers better than a wetter layer.