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Heated shops and covering wings... 11/15/03 - I haven't posted anything since 11/02/03 because I waited until my furnace installers finished so I wouldn't have to think about moving a partially covered wing structure or have the guys working around it. The shop furnace installation was completed earlier this week and so with today's 40 degree temperatures, I made GOOD use of the new heat source!!! Additionally, I need to let other builders know of a(nother) MISTAKE I made during wing construction that didn't show up until today when I got ready to actually begin covering the first wing bottom. I discovered the bolts attaching the COMPRESSION TUBES to the LONG WING CHANNEL were installed from topside down, rather than the other direction as the manual indicates. This puts the bolt end too close to the fabric on the bottom side. Fortunately, before I attached the fabric, I had things clamped in place and noticed the bolt end looked too close to the fabric and after rechecking the manual, I found I'd installed them wrong. After the bolt swap, I was ready to begin covering! Ready to go:
The manual (and Ed) says to put a bed of adhesive down to help eliminate pinholes later, so in the next photo I'm applying a 50% solution:
I attached the fabric to the rear spar first then the leading edge (and got so carried away with my work that I forgot to take any photos of that effort) then trimmed the leading edge and attached the fabric at the tip end:
Working on the root end now. In the first photo, I have the fabric turned-back so I can mark for a 2" cut which gets wrapped over and tucked under the root rib. The second photo shows a small piece of stock I have bent to use to wedge the fabric under the rib and skin, then the next photo show the completed root end after gluing the fabric to the root rib.
And flipped, showing the wing from the topside:
After an hour break (for a haircut) I did a little trimming on the tip and root ends then ran my small iron over the spars to get a few wrinkles out and ensure the fabric was attached properly along the spars. I then took my BIG iron (first use on this one and as it's new I ran through the heat calibrations first to find my three settings) and then tightened the bottom fabric slightly at 250 degrees from the center out. Here's a few shots of the progression:
Here's the completed bottom surface:
Here's the wing ready for the next section of fabric:
All in all, I think the bottom surface has turned out much better than I expected. When I applied the first brush coat of adhesive to the wing, I wasn't sure how hard this part of the covering process was going to be, but it's starting out just fine. We'll see how it progresses! ;^) OH, BY THE WAY...if you are building one of these kits, I STRONGLY SUGGEST you make use of the wing stands. I would not have had the easy day I did today without them. More updates soon... |
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Last Update: 11/15/2003 |
