Test Layup Done

I did a new practice layup today. I have deliberately avoided going back into the garage-mahal while it cures. I want to wait and see if my efforts have paid off.

I took a 6" x 32" piece of scrap PVC foam to start with. I wanted a somehwhat larger piece of foam to work with.

I lightly sanded the face I was goign to do my layup on. I had not done this step on the seatback.

I cut two plies of bid at the 45, of course.

I mixed up a batch of slrry. This time I mixed it a bit thicker than I had been doing before.

I dumped out the lusrry and really worked it back and forth on the foam to be sure I was filling the pores. Previously I was basically dumping on, spreading it aroudn and squeeing it off. I dont think I was actually getting the pored filled. I noticed a HUGE difference in the results today.

Next, I set my first ply of glass on the foam. I mixed up some epoxy and dumped it on. I used only the squeegy to move the epoxy around. Using VERY light strokes. My intent was to let gravity and capilary action do the initial work on wetting out the cloth. Again, I noticed a huge difference.

There were a lot of large air bubbles so I began to use my hairdryer and squeegie to work those out. Once they were out, using light strokes, I squeegied off excess epoxy.

I then rolled out my second ply and repeated the wet out process.

I used very little stipling. Only towards the end to chase out the remaining bubbles.

I also concentrated on NOT overworking the glass and epoxy.

The last thing I did was to use light squeegie strokes to emoved and standing 'puddles' of epoxy, then a final once over to check for bubbles. The whole time I was lightly passing the har dryer over the piece to keep things warm.

That was it. Done. Start to finish, prep to wet-out took about an hour or so. I will check in the morning to see how I did.

If the piece looks good I will go ahead and complete the seatback and get back to building airplance parts.

Bubbles, Bubbles, everywhere

I'm haivng some issues with my layup techniques. I haven't fully figured them out yet. Basically, I'm getting a lot of tiny bubbles in my epoxy. I think it's a combination of several factors:
1: I'm not keepign the epoxy warm enough during the wet-out. Solution: Use a hair dryer to keep the temp up
2: My foam prep isn't good enough. I'm not getting good fill with my micro. Solution: Try a slightly thicker micro and make real sure I filled the pores.
3: I'm working the glass to much with the squeegie. Solution: you a lighter touch to get the excess epoxy out and clean the brush more often.

This past week I've been cutting bulkheads out in prep for glassing.
I've got F-22, it's doubler, F-28 and the intrucment panel and cut an dready to go.

This weekend I'm going to do a couple of practice layups with scraps. If they come out ok I'll start glassing airplane parts again.