dirk tinck Posted August 3, 2021 Author Share Posted August 3, 2021 Hi all ! So let's make some parts !! To get colored parts out of a mould , the paint has to get on first , but not after the usual wax (5times!)and a layer of pva (release agent).I did all that yesterday so tonight i painted the moulds for the hatches and nose cone , on the inside, with IMC (in mould coating )from HP textiles , Germany. NO , i don't get a discount for typing this !!?. I've seen others use spray can paint for this , and i tryed it , but it's such a pain to sand it after ! I've chosen neutral white as i have no idea what color sceme i will follow in the end...Or do i ?? Tomorrow i can start making the hatches and nose cone ! I decided to make the nose hatch and nose cone , the normal way , and not vacuum bagging them. I think it's no use on such small parts , they will be strong enough due to their curved form. Time will tell !! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 4, 2021 Author Share Posted August 4, 2021 Hi all! I started with the nose cone and the nose hatch to laminate them in their moulds. The first layer is 50gr glass to avoid seeing the weave through the paint. Next is 100gr. three times. To be sure the sharp corners are filled 100 % ,i'm sqeezing a fillet of thickened resin out of a plastic bag into the corners before i put on the glass. The motor hatch is for tomorrow ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 5, 2021 Author Share Posted August 5, 2021 Hi all ! The early bird catches the worm !!! After a good night sleep i was curious for the result ! I cleaned up the nose cone , gut the bolts out , an d guess what ! One half fell off ! No tools needed to get this one out ! Happy vacation !! x 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Bootifull Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Excellent. Brilliant. It is worth the effort..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torsten Spitzner Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Beautiful. I admire your patience and dedication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Wishing the same success with the rest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 5, 2021 Author Share Posted August 5, 2021 Hi all ! Thanks for the kind words guy's !! Much appreciated !! No time to do the motor hatch today , ?I took the time to visit my local RC club and do some flights.It was the first time this year !! I couldn't close the day without a visit to the fouga works so i prepaired the two half nose hatches to join them. I cleaned up the edges where they will be joined and pva-ed the contact surfaces , then bolted them together. Covered the seam with a fillet of thickened resin , followed by three strips of glass (100gr) That's it ! After curing , this part gets a clean up before opening the mould ! The fillet was applied with a candy bag where the tip is cut off. x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 6, 2021 Author Share Posted August 6, 2021 Hi all ! Today i did the layup of the motor hatch (glass/airex foam/glass ). I had a lot to learn about vacuum bagging so i can only hope for a good result. Managing the new technics , i forgot to take pics , sorry. With the motor hatch /mould combo in the bag , curing under vacuum , i cleaned up the nose hatch/mould combo so i could open the mould. Unbolted , it literally fell open !! The quality of the part is perfect , it's strong , it has sharp corners , no defects but i'm a little disappointed about the weight... 63gr while i aimed for 50. I'll get that changed the next one ! The panel lines came out OK and there is no damage to the mould pieces , happy with the first try for this part !! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 7, 2021 Author Share Posted August 7, 2021 Hi all ! This morning , after 8 hours curing , i disconnected the vacuum pump and removed the motor hatch mould out of the bag. Curious for the result , i took away the bleeder , it's like a towel to soak up the exess resin. Between the bleeder and the glass i used a layer of perforated plastic to prevent the bleeder sticking to the glass. This left me with just the mould with the new hatch in it. I cut of the overhanging fabric away with a sharp blade. Remember the epoxy has only cured for 8 hours and is not fully hardened and there is only two layers of100gr to cut. After the clean up , i unbolted the mould and took it apart. No problems here. On first sight it looks very good and very strong ! Inspecting the new part closer , i noticed some tiny dents along some panel lines... I guess i need to cover the panel lines with thickened resin as a first layer in the mould ?? This part is usable but it needs to be better next time ! Most panel lines are fine and the dummy screws look good ! The inside clearly shows the Herex foam between the glass layers. The foam layer is the reason for vacuum bagging because it's very hard to keep it in place , let alone with a extra layer of glass on top ! Besides this , it makes the parts rock solid Not sure about the weight ...96 gr The second one , i'll try to loose some !! Stay tuned ! Making a fuse will be interesting ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 15, 2021 Author Share Posted August 15, 2021 Hi all ! Last week i made a second trio of fouga parts with mixed succes. Trying to loose weight i tested different numbers of layers and another sort of sanwich material : Cork ! The nose cone and the nose hatch were layed up with 50 gr , 100gr , 100gr. They were still strong enough for their purpose and a little lighter .5.1gr and 35gr. The motor hatch is another story...I tried 50gr , 100gr and left it to cure.The day after i added a layer of cork , wich i perforated , (weight) again 100gr and vacuum bagged it...Not good ! The perforations in the cork left me with dents in the finished part. Also the weight increased to 103 gr? Next i will try 80gr,cork(not perforated)80gr. More testing next week ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted August 31, 2021 Author Share Posted August 31, 2021 Hi all ! I think i found my way around the ideal thickness of the glass to make the first three parts. The third time i used 100gr/airex/100 gr for the big hatch and 100gr/100gr/100gr for the small one and the nose cone. I've got three perfect parts now , on with the fuselage ! I bolted the three fuselage parts for one side together , cleaned them and waxed them five times , ready for pva. I also trimmed the parts for the hatch openings and screwed them in place. The edges of the moulds were taped with glossy tape so that the're kept free from the paint and epoxy. x After a coat of pva , i painted the inside with white poyurethane paint. This becomes the outside of the fresh fouga fuse . behind the fuse mould you can see the first thing i ever made in composites : A beach buggy on a VW beetle floor pan. This was some 30 years ago...The moulds are sold in the UK...The car is in the shop for maintenance after being sold for the third time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted September 1, 2021 Share Posted September 1, 2021 Both look great.. I bet Fouga is more challenging? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 It's gone very quite? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Jones Posted October 9, 2021 Share Posted October 9, 2021 On 07/10/2021 at 17:04, alan p said: It's gone very quite? That is what I was thinking. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted October 10, 2021 Author Share Posted October 10, 2021 Hi all ! Sorry i've been lazy lately...In fact , i am a little out of my rhythm due to a few things... First i attended a few airshows now that the weather still lets us . Second , i dropped out of the fouga build for a week to get my sabre pss ready for the mass build weekend. That turned out a nightmare as we could not travel to the UK because covid regulations . The plane was ready , got ourselves tested thursday negative , got up at 5 am to part for Calais , only to hear at the ferry terminal that we should have ordered a ''day2test'' online and have it send to our destination in the UK....Proof of this should be on our PLF ! I lost it there and we drove home very dissapointed. So all of this got to me and lost my building appetite for a few days . This is all history now and i'm back on track ! After i spray painted the fuselage moulds i layed up the first glass-epoxy 100 gr layer. The panel lines gave me a hard time to get the air out so i added a little thickened resin before the glass came on. Normally , the next layer follows wet in wet but this lay-up allready took 6 hours. Next thing i did was prepairing the airex pieces. I made-up paper templates in the mould and transfered them to the airex foam And dry-fitted them in the mould I tried to keep them in position with magnets . The following step is to apply the airex with epoxy , followed by a second layer of glass , again 100 gr. Next is a layer of perforated plastic and a bleeder towel to divide the vacuum. This goes in a large plastic bag and vacuum is apply'd. This presses all the layers together and forms a strong but light sandwich part. This is also for me a new technique and i just did the front part of the fuse. As you can see , there are a few wrinkles and i'm trying to find out the cause and a solution... More next days !! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 Welcome back Dirk, sorry to hear about your travel problems. If you want to make something easy difficult, get a civil servant involved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted November 1, 2021 Author Share Posted November 1, 2021 Hi all ! Here we go again... Not happy with the result of the lay-up , i decided to start over and get the fuse half out of the mould. Easyer said then done ! The pva didn't work out in some places as the fuse got stuck in the mould. I was affraid the mould was lost at the time but i got them separated in the end and got the surface clean again ! Wondering what happened , i did some testing and i found that after a few minutes spunging- on the pva , you have to use a new spunge...The pva starts to dry and it looks like it has no grip on the surface. Anyways it worked out the second time and again i'm ready to start laminating ! Working with the vacuum bag , i found another problem : The shape of the moulds make it very hard not to damage the bag. Therefore i made some foam blocks with liquid 2K foam around the outside of the moulds. Now all i need is to find some time to remake the first fuse half. Not easy as this will be a 8-10 hours session !! Pleas don't drop out of this blog , it may take a few days , but it will be rewarding as this is the main part of the airframe ! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 I'm in for the long haul Dirk, keep going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted November 1, 2021 Share Posted November 1, 2021 54 minutes ago, Ron Gray said: I'm in for the long haul Dirk, keep going! I am in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murat Kece 1 Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Hi DIrk I am following with enthusiasm.. Keep going.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirk tinck Posted November 2, 2021 Author Share Posted November 2, 2021 Thank U all for the positive comments ! With my cheeks red i present U the fuse half for the ...bin. It's a story of trial and error i guess , in this case , an error ! x There's a lot of perfect area's but that's not enough ! Other and better ! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan p Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 If I had managed a result like that I would be well pleased. We tend to be over critical of our endevours. More strength to your arm? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Light at the end of the (very long) tunnel..... ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 is that the one where the PVA grabbed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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