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Post by mikey100 on May 2, 2009 19:56:43 GMT 10
Check out the 'sites' section on the Windsock main page. The directions are exact...thats how I found it. Mike
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Post by thevon on Nov 1, 2009 18:57:27 GMT 10
This thread needs to be revived, and I’m about to do it in style. I’m shocked and frightened at how dumb I can be.
The weather looked unconvincing today so, being really tired, I was sort of glad to stay home and find time to get my much-abused fleet airborne again with some unrushed, crafty repairs. After some domestic duties I slipped off to the shed, re-started Phil Barne’s vac bagging DVD where I’d last left off, and resumed some patchwork repairs to the Vector and Espada. Being a bit of a pro at repairs now, I made good progress switching back and forth from part to part while epoxy set. I occasionally had to rewind Phil to catch something I’d missed while concentrating hard.
I’d fixed a chunk out of the leading edge of the Vector wing with balsa and pink foam and did a neat job of the sanding, making sure the foam and surrounding bit were just slightly below the plane of the wing surface. Jeff Irvin would be proud of me here. I used greaseproof paper to trace the desired patch shape, and misted Super 77 to adhere 2 biased layers of glass cloth over it, then cut the perfect shape. Mixed the West Systems 105, wet up the repairs and the glass patch, laid it on, and peeled the paper off. Perfect! I felt like I was in good company with Phil who at that time was painstakingly laying up the Kevlar on a HLG then vac bagging it. I then laid 2 layers of peel ply over the wet patch, then a piece of thick laminating film, and tacked it in place with masking tape.
Glowing with my cleverness, I then had a brainwave. Rather than use my normal cumbersome method of compressing the layup with bits of foam sheet, insulation tape, bits of ply and weights; I remembered I now have all the gear for vac bagging!
Dear Readers, some of you can see where this is going, can’t you, and are fearful of reading any further. Quite understandable. This is a disturbing story and it is recommended that you not read any further if you are easily upset by needless glider damage or gratuitous stupidity.
I got out the vac bag and fittings Glenn supplied, cut it to length, and neatly laid the Vector wing inside. Carefully laid some strips of old sheet around it to let the air out, and set it safely on a shelf where it would be out of the way while it set for 12 hours. I got the biggest of my collection of fridge compressors, switched it on and attached the tube. Byootiful!!! The bag sucked down slowly but really flat over the repair. “Wow!” I said out loud, amazed at how effectively the vacuum worked. This is going to look good! I thought, as a “CRACK” noise came from the other end of the wing.
I looked on in confusion, my mind trying to come to grips with why the far end of the wing looked weird. It looked sort of buckled inwards– reflections on the plastic?? Rather like a bad version of Windows ME, the screen went blank while my brain processed this new information too slowly until it hit on the right diagnosis and I realized that unlike the foam cores Phil was bagging, this was a hollow wing with a fragile glass/ balsa skin.
O*&^$OUI&TIUVJKLHG! Suddenly it was clear – the wing was crushing under the vacuum! In 2 milliseconds I ripped the hose from the fridge pump and waited for the bag to go slack. But it didn’t and I watched nothing happening, realizing the enormity of the situation. (Wow, it looks like the top and bottom skins are totally sucked together! This wing is surely cactus. Andrew Barnes will never talk to me again!). Suddenly I remembered the one-way valve Glenn had supplied with the tube. This time ripping the tube from the bag yielded a resounding hiss but the wing still looked more like a cross between a spoon and an egg lifter. I pulled the bag seal clips off to let all the air in, and held my breath as the wing slowly went from concave to convex.
It could be worse. There’s a slight crease where the skin meets the dragspar, but bending and twisting the wing doesn’t seem to elicit any movement.
I’m a worry.
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Post by sean on Nov 1, 2009 19:14:03 GMT 10
Oh No Andrew! I'm afraid to say I could see the direction that was heading very early in the piece - vac bagging made easy... moldy repairs... oh no stop now!! Glad it didn't come out any worse.
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Post by bananaman on Nov 1, 2009 20:47:39 GMT 10
Lucky, lucky, lucky!
Opposite but related... ish.
I was in Germany, it was summer and very hot 38C and a member of the swiss F3b team was a having a ball with a "Wobbegong" a special team model. He later went to his car to show us a new one peice molded F3B wing that had the servos and wiring already molded in. It was only just out of the mould the evening before. As it was molded that way, it was airtight and had not yet had any holes cut in it.
What he pulled out of the car was not a wing anymore. It was a puffy weird thing that looked wingish. He quickly stabbed the skin near a servo. It didn't change shape.
Ouch.
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Post by aussiejarred on Nov 1, 2009 20:53:30 GMT 10
haha andrew... who woulda thought ey?
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Post by shane on Nov 1, 2009 22:39:44 GMT 10
Hate to be inside a vac bag at your place Good that its ok .
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Post by thevon on Nov 2, 2009 6:46:54 GMT 10
Just woke up and no, it wasn't a bad dream - I REALLY DID do that yesterday!
Just kidding.
Brian that's a REALLY sad story about that wing in Germany. I cringed reading it!
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Post by bananaman on Nov 2, 2009 18:50:00 GMT 10
I cringed when he was stabbing it with a screw driver
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Post by jirvin4505 on Nov 2, 2009 22:53:36 GMT 10
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Post by combatnoosa on Nov 9, 2009 7:31:48 GMT 10
Won't be doing this again!
Well I did some composite work yesterday. Prepared everything, cut the carbon out, greased the glass table top with vaso and the glass sheet to go on top as well, poured the epoxy on to the first layer then the second and finally the third, all the time my girl was helping me, we were proud of what we had done.
Now here is the problem I got the glass idea off youtube, they used release wax, I have no money so I used vaso, bad move.
I tested a spot as the epoxy was still gummy and oh dear she don't wanna move.
So I am thinking, maybe it will come off after it had set.
Well I tried that and the top glass sheet is in small shards now.
I am just Going to stick with grease proof paper now!
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