October 16, 2017
After my day job I decided to get some time in on the cockpit locker hatches, and to begin with I testing a scrap piece of foam on the router table. Using the 1/2" radius bit, I ran the scrap piece along the fence to apply the desired cut.
The results were just what I was looking for on the eventual finished locker hatch. With that successful test, I then turned to the templates for the same application.
After running all four sides of the tops of each template / mold across the router table's 1/2" radius bit I noticed that the alignment of the bit was not strictly perfect - leaving a bit of a hard transition line from the top to the radius surface, as can be seen in the picture below.
I "softened" the transition line from top to side with the use of some very fine grit sandpaper that I had on hand. The necessity of having a fair curve in the transition was not too important, but I did want to create a nice transition for the heavier fiberglass cloth to assume. In addition, if there was any strange result in the layup, I would address with fairing compounds on what would be the underside of the hatch itself.
With the top-to-side radius applied to all sides of both hatches, and with the smoothing completed with the fine grit sandpaper, I wrapped the starboard locker hatch with plastic and then hot-glued the template to a large would block.
I had laid a sheet of plastic down on my fiberglass wet-out board; on one end I had the template staged for work, and on the other end I would wet-out the fiberglass itself. The picture below shows two lengths of 6" 1708 biaxial tape in a butt joint along the length of the template, with a length of 4" 1708 biaxial tape overlapping and also running the length of the template.
A close-up picture of the first layers of cloth applied.
Ultimately, I would finish the short work session with laying down 6 lengths of the 6" 1708 tape and the 1 length of 4" 1708 tape. I essentially had 3 layers of 1708 glass on the template. Since the work surface was generating a bit of heat as a result of the curing process, I decided to draw things to a close for the day. I plan to water-wash the surface, sand to abrade the surface for a good mechanical bond, and then lay up an additional layer of 1708 and then finish with a lighter cloth prior to fairing the surface for primer and paint. The material hanging below the template will be cut to create a finished bottom edge.
Total Time Today: 2.5 hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment