Sun. 1
Well today was cold and windy outside so I spent the whole day working on the stabilizer. I pretty well followed along with the steps in the manual, spending a bit extra time on the ply to make nice tapered edges and corners. I did this on the rib lay up and it really paid off when I had to get the glass over the edges. It took a little reading and re-reading to understand what the wedge of foam was about. An extra drawing here would really help. Essentially what they want you to do is ensure that the back of the rib becomes bonded to the TE spar close out. I cut out my cloth, and again mentally thanked myself on having a nice large cut out table. I do my entire cutting with a cutting wheel, which makes it easy to follow the line on bid cloth.
I used a syringe to make my flox corners and this really cut the time down and got a good corner. I made up a checklist before I started the lay up. The manual mentions many cautions and it was easier to make a list up. No special difficulties with the lay ups, I guess this must be a sign of getting better a it!! I saved 3 samples, #14 to #16 .I used local heating, 30 @ 41% r.h.
The close out along with the clean up took about 3 hours, and apart from not getting the weave perfectly straight on the TE, things looked pretty good. We were feeling pleased with ourselves, so we watched a movie and had a nice glass of Australian wine, (yes you can buy it here !!) I have the habit of checking my heating lamps before calling it a night, and behold, a disaster awaits. Unfortunately expanding air in the core had nowhere to get out because the TP5 hole was still plugged up from the lay up. This caused a large bubble in the wedge area. The glass was at the leather stage and really wasn't going to move much, so I drilled a small hole and injected it full of resin, and went to bed particularly grumpy !!
Monday 2
Well I went down to the workshop to inspect the sad state of affairs and unfortunately it had not magically corrected itself during the night. I called Andy Draper at Europa for some advice. Apparently something similar has occurred before where people had too much resin under the foam plug and it had an exothermic reaction pushing the wedge out. Andy didn't seem to think it was near the disaster that I thought it was - just cut it out and do it again he says !!. I got out the Dremmel and cut the top off the bubble and I discovered that the wedge with the bid bracket was structurally sound. It was really a matter of grinding out a small channel, filling it with flox and putting in some bid.
Tuesday 3
I spent some time cleaning up my repair job on the TE root. This epoxy and fiberglass stuff is really neat. After cleaning up I could hardly see the repair job. I decided to put the port side away for a while and get ready for the first lay up on the starboard side. This whole process went smoothly, it was nice to be able to do the second side so soon after the first. The actual lay up (including cleaning up) still took 3 hours with Jenny and I working on it, even though we were familiar with the whole process. I saved 2 samples, # 17 & #18, and used local heating 27c @ 48% r.h. My wife seems to have become quite the expert here, and I am relegated to mixing, trimming and wetting out. I am not complaining, I really don't like sticky stuff very much at all!
Wednesday 4
A quick check of yesterday's job revealed that all was well, so I spent a bit of time injecting some small bubbles on the port stabilizer. Despite my efforts a couple of bubbles had formed where the ply meets the root edge. I used a polypropylene syringe from Aircraft Spruce. These things are quite handy for making up flox corners as well.
I cut some cloth and rolled it up for the next lay up. I am still using masking tape and cutting down the middle. I have found by taking care not to stretch the tape before I put it on, that the cloth does not bunch up. I set the rudder core in its foam blocks and glued it to the bench. This core seemed to take a lot of weighting down to get it to sit flat. This is the first time I have had to put any thing more than a few lead shot bags on to hold it flat.
Thursday 5
We did the topside lay up today. This took about 2.5 hours including clean up, so I guess we must be getting better at it. It went pretty well by the book with no special problems. We are having good success at rolling the cloth onto the surface with out getting any wrinkles. It seems better if we unroll with the cloth coming off the top of the tube, rather than the underside. I would rather have made this little discovery on my first big lay up, not my last! I saved 2 samples, # 18 & @ #20, and used local heating 27c @ 42% r.h.
Friday 6
I cleaned up the edges of the starboard stabilizer and sanded them flush. To get a nice straight edge I have a piece of aluminum 100 x 25 x 1000 mm. I have put on some selfadhesive glass paper on the 100 surface. So far, this has proved to be quite effective for all of the long edges. Its not as nice as the tool made by Permagrit, but is a lot less expensive!
Saturday 7
I spent the most part of today doing the port trim tab close out. This turned out to be a tedious task, probably equal in time to many of the other lay ups. I tried laying in the first piece of bid and got it so far out of shape it ended up in the rubbish bin. I got the next piece out and after about 15 minutes it suffered the same fate.
Well by this stage I knew there had to be a better way. I cut out two new pieces and tried the "Cling Wrap" method. A number of builders advocate laying the cloth on a piece of cling wrap, then pour on some resin and put on another layer of cling wrap. You then get out your squeegee and work the resin through. The next step is to remove the top layer of cling wrap and place it on the job. I have to say this method works a treat. I was able to easily position the cloth without it losing its shape, with the added bonus of having the cloth correctly wetted out.
I saved 2 samples, # 21 & #22, and used local heating 27c @ 42% r.h.
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The reason I wanted to build an RV6 !! |
Sunday 8
The first task for today was to vacuum out and clean off the resin from my bench. I then spent a few hours cutting out the cloth for the starboard trim tab close out, and the starboard stabilizer.
Monday 9
I spent an hour or so cleaning up the edges on the port trim tab from the close out job. I do this with a hacksaw blade in a hand holder. I find that it only takes five minutes per cut, and another ten minutes or so with the sanding block. I much prefer this to the trimming at the leather cure stage advocated by the manual.
I then turned my attention to the starboard stabilizer, which was still sitting in its jig blocks from the lay up last Thursday. I had already trimmed all of the edges a few days previously, so it was the "hey presto, close out flanges in 5 seconds" time again. Well needless to say it wasn't five seconds, but the second time around was a lot better. The first trick is to use as little as possible glue when bonding on the TP3 piece prior to the lay up. The second thing that helped was when I bonded it on, I held it firmly in place by using pins until the glue set. This helped prevent resin seeping down the gap when I was doing the lay up. I think I spent closer to 30 minutes removing the foam out. I did make up some triangular sanding blocks to get right down into the corner. I find the adhesive glass paper from Aircraft Spruce really good for this. A couple more hours of sanding & cutting with the Dremmel had all of the foam removed. The last job for the day was to cut out the trim tab. I often worry about tasks like this, if you mess it up it would be really difficult to repair. The only thing I did differently was to put a strip of aluminum inside the core to stop the hack saw blade bruising the foam underneath.
Tuesday 10
It was time for the starboard stabilizer close out today. Unfortunately my trusty assistant is away today so this time consuming close out took even longer. I pretty well followed the same process as on Sunday, with the exception of using the "Cling Wrap" method for the first layer. I am a true convert of this method and will be using it for all of those tight close outs in the future. I did find without a second person on the job that you really have to be working the resin much more. I used the same checklist that I had prepared for the last close out. I would recommend doing this because I find each sentence in the manual often has several steps, all of which are vital.
I saved 3 samples, # 23, 24& #25, and used local heating 26c @ 45% r.h. It was interesting to note that the relative humidity was still low even though it was raining outside. I have found that the basement of this house has been dry and the temperature has not varied more than a couple of degrees. This is has been a blessing, I think I would have had to air-condition the workshop I had in Sydney to get a stable environment.
Wednesday 11
Well, I went to the dentist today and I sort of lost interest in most things. I circled the workshop a couple of times and did a touch and go landing, so to speak. I cut back all of the glass overhang on the close out edges and sanded them back. I am fairly happy with the job, but I know that I would have had a few less of those tiny bubbles if both of us had been doing the close out! After a couple of hours I retired to the upstairs hanger for a rum and coke.
Thursday 12
Well, I went to the dentist again, and I really struggled to get interested in the project. I got out the starboard trim tab and got it ready for the close out. Time for another rum and coke. (Works better than aspirin!)
Friday 13
I did the starboard trim tab close out today. My trusty assistant is still away and I sure miss that extra set of hands. I used the "Cling Wrap" method again. It was very successful for the first layer, but I had a little trouble with the second. I found that the resin was not quite as runny and when I put the second layer on it stuck to the first and would not slide down into the root properly. For a while it seemed like I was going to have to pull it all off and start again, but I found by carefully separating the two layers with a mixing stick I could introduce some resin which allowed me to position the second layer. I haven't closed out the tip end on either trim tab yet, I will leave it until I have fitted up the hinges so as to be sure that the clearances will be okay. Saved samples #26 & 27, 25c @ 48% r.h.
I put that lot away to cure and got out the port stabilizer and trim tab. I drilled out all of the holes for the trim tab hinge and mounted it onto the stabilizer. Getting it all lined up seems time consuming. I didn't fit the two parts of the hinge together permanently until I have marked and drilled all of the holes. I couldn't really see how I could mark out the inner hinge holes on the stabilizer if the hinge was bonded to the trim tab and the two halves of the hinge were pinned together.
Saturday 14
I took a quick run down to the hardware store and got some 10x32 screws to use as temporary fasteners for the stabilizer. I spent the next hour or so carefully drilling these out. With that done I turned my attention to getting the clearance correct to get 30mm of downwards deflection. I find the Permagrit sanding splines really good for tasks like this, and although they were an expensive purchase they were well worth the money.
I finished off my afternoon in the workshop by cleaning up the edges of the starboard stabilizer ready for the hinge fit out.
Sunday 15
Well its time to do the hinges on the port side trim tab. I had hoped that the job would go a little faster having had the experience of doing the starboard side a few days ago, but it just seems like one of those jobs that take care and time. It pretty well finished off the afternoon in the workshop getting them fitted up and the clearances filed out. I used a piece of aluminum angle with small clamps to get the alignment correct.
Monday 16
Tuesday 17
My wife arrived back from Wales, England this evening so most of the night was spent waiting around the airport..
Wednesday 18
Given Tuesday's event it didn't seem like a good idea to disappear down into the workshop tonight either!!.
Thursday 19
Well I think its safe to disappear into the workshop tonight so I did the last closeout on the trim tabs tonight. This is the first time since I built the Euro chock that I have done a closeout of a flat surface. I used the Permagrit cone on my Dremmel to cut a 45-degree rebate for the flox corner, which makes really quick work of that task. I used cling wrap to smooth out the flox corner and laid over the cloth. This whole job was over in less than 2 hours and turned out quite nicely.
Friday 20
Saturday 21
Today turned out to be unseasonably nice, so I had no choice but to go flying. I have been considering a share in a C150 so I flew up to Juneau to speak to the A&P who maintains the aircraft. So far its looking okay, it would be cheaper that renting and its in nice condition. It doesn't have a glide slope so it won't really be able to serve as an IFR trainer so I am a little unsure.
Sunday 22
I must be all "Europaed" out, I only spent about an hour in the workshop this weekend. I cleaned up the trim tab ends that I had closed out earlier in the week. I used a hand held blade to cut it back and cleaned them up using Permagrit sanding splines. I started cleaning back the flange to fit up the locating pin.
Monday 23
I made up the template for aligning the hinge plate and prepared the hinge plate. I had to take a small amount of the edges of the plate to get a nice fit. I drilled out some holes and scuffed the surface so that the epoxy will get a good surface to bond to.
Tuesday 24
I mixed up some flox and bonded the hinge plate in place. This was only an hour long job, however I had to wait for this to set before the next step. I cut out some bid and generally tidied up the workshop ready for tomorrow.
Wednesday 25
I set up the trim tab ready for the lay up on the end of my bench. I have put a small shelf on the end of my bench legs about half way up. This has turned out to be perfect for setting up several of the lay up jobs at the right angle. I laid in three layers of bid and put on some local heat. I found that the cloth wanted to form a bubble on the radius so I put a small amount of flox along the ridge.
Thursday 28
I re-assembled the trim tab onto the stabilizer and put both stabilizers onto the torque tube in order to get the hinge pin on the other side correctly aligned. Unfortunately I discovered that although I had bonded the pin in the correct place according to the template, the plate was not at right angles to the hinge line. Whoops. I took a look at my options and they seemed to be to remove it or bend it. Neither of these options seemed to be appealing.
Friday 27
I sent an email off to Andy Draper at Europa for some advice on the best approach on my hinge plate problem.
Saturday 28
No building, on business in Europe until next weekend
Sunday 29
Monday 30