Over the last couple of weeks, we've finished all of the wing ribs for the center and middle wing sections, and the end ribs for the center section. We've also continued to build more trailing edges, and Chris cut the remaining trailing edge cores, including narrower cores for the outer parts of the tapered wing sections.
We also trimmed the lashings on the fuselage frame that had been lashed a couple of months ago.
We are getting ready to do some flow visualization with a Naphtha/Lamp Black solution, to see if we get good flow over a bare Depron surface (thus meaning we don't have to risk bending the Depron when heating the Mylar, and making application of the Mylar on the remaining open areas of the wing simpler). So we did some compatibility tests with Depron and Naphtha to make sure that the Depron didn't melt (it didn't).
We also trimmed the lashings on the fuselage frame that had been lashed a couple of months ago.
Ribs and End Ribs
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| Working on wing ribs and end ribs |
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| Cutting out main spar hole with hot wand |
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| A bunch of ribs with spar holes completed (with some remaining below) |
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| Cutting triangle of foam out for trailing edge |
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| Sanding inside of rib caps after cutting out foam triangle |
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| Cutting foam core for end rib |
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| End rib after gluing and clamping of full balsa face sheet |
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| Cutting rib caps to proper width for end ribs |
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| Applying glue to rib caps |
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| Spreading the glue |
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| Rib caps in place, peel ply in place, ready to put into shuck and under vacuum |
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| Taped up in the shuck |
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| Almost ready for vacuum bagging, putting bleeder cloth over peel ply |
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| Ready for vacuum |
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| Under vacuum |
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| After vacuum |
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| After Vacuum with tape removed |
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| Finished end ribs (and all Center and Middle ribs) with spar holes complete |
Foam-only biscuits (i.e. foam plugs)
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| All of the foam plugs (aka "foam-only biscuits") cut to length, ready to install into the rear spars |
Prep for Flow Visualization Tests
We are getting ready to do some flow visualization with a Naphtha/Lamp Black solution, to see if we get good flow over a bare Depron surface (thus meaning we don't have to risk bending the Depron when heating the Mylar, and making application of the Mylar on the remaining open areas of the wing simpler). So we did some compatibility tests with Depron and Naphtha to make sure that the Depron didn't melt (it didn't).
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| Compatibility test of Naphtha on Depron |
Making Trailing Edges
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| Cutting trailing edge cores |
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| Completed cores (narrower cores for tapered tips at right) |
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| Cutting Polyethelene sheeting for trailing edge build |
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| Heating and smoothing the polyethelene sheeting (after unfolding it) |
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| Cutting the Kevlar fabric for the trailing edges |
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| Putting the epoxy on the Kevlar |
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| Spreading epoxy out (under Polyethelene sheet) |
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| Putting base sheet down (peeling top polyethelene sheet, leaving bottom sheet over top of Mylar on long board) |
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| Placing the cores on the bottom sheet |
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| Cores in place (4 cores, 8 feet long each) |
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| Placing strengthening patch over junction between 4 foot core sections (it goes under the top sheet, there is a corresponding patch on the bottom side as well) |
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| Smoothing out the Kevlar into the valleys between cores |
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| Adding the 'magic strips' -- polyethelene strips covering about 95% of width of the trailing edges to prevent too much epoxy from getting sucked out of upper layer of Kevlar under full vacuum |
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| Ready for vac uum bagging -- peel ply and bleeder cloth in place |
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| Ready for vacuum |
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| Finished Parts |
Trimming Fuselage Lashings
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| Unbolting hose clamps |
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| Removing the tape on un-epoxied ends of Kevlar Tow |
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| Cutting excess ends |
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| Cutting excess ends with razor blades |
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| Kevlar lashings after trimming |
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| That fuselage is light! (approx. 2691.4 grams -- under 6 lbs!) |
Total "COOLNESS" !!!
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