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.

Official Start Part 2

I couldn't it. Last night I went into the garage and actually started making my first airplane part.

The Cozy plans are done in chpaters with each chapter building up the previous work. Chapters 1-3 are setup and education. Chapter 4 is the first construction chapter and covered the making f the various fuselage bulkheads. This is where out story picks up...

The first piece you make is the front seatback. It's a simple 3/4" blue pvc foam panel. It's actually overdone but I think the designer did this to expose us newbie to several important construction techniques.

I didn't get very far but I did cut the foam to shape and sanded the first 45deg edge. Yup, that's it. It doesn't seem like much but it's a start. Long journey, first steps, yadda yadda.

I did learn from other builders that I need to tweak my epoxy pump a little more. It's a volumetric pump and it's set at 100:50 The MGS 285 epoxy I'm using is specified by weight. That ratio is 100 : 40 ± 2. When I did my last test run I calculated the weight ratio to be 100:43. So, I'm not within tolerance. I need to make a tiny adjustment to reduce the hardener output a snootch. Anal? You bet; I'm goign to be flying in this plane so I want to be as anal as possible without taking 100 years to complete.

In the beginning...

Today I mark the official beginning of my homebuilding experience. No, I'm not building a house. I am building an airplane in my house. Actually, it's in my garage. This is not a model. It's a full-size, four seat, 200 horsepower airplane.

The airplane is a plans built composite canard pusher. That means I'm building it mostly from scratch, made out of fiberglass and epoxy, has a canard wing in the front and the engine/propellor in the back. The design is called the Cozy Mark 4. A man named Nat Puffer designed the plane based on Burt Rutan's design called the Long-Ez. Yes, Burt Rutan; the same guy who recently designed and built the first private spaceship. So, my deisgn has a really nice pedigree.

Why do I mark today as the start? Well, I've really been prepping to build this sucker for about two years. I've got the workshop all setup in the garage (Or Garage-Mahal as Jen likes to call it) and finally saved enough cash to buy the supplies and materials for the first 4 chapters of the construction.

The order arrived via UPS freight last night. I still have a tiny amount of prep to do and then I get started in earnest.

I already pumped my first batch of epoxy during lunch. I didn't build anything. I was setting the ratio and an epoxy dispensing pump I'll be using. Tonigh I'm going to begin with pieces parts.