My First Wing Techniques
[Home] [Up] [Phil Barnes XP3 Techniques] [My First Wing Techniques]

   Site Map:      Mail Me:      Payments/Conditions:   Feedback/Order Form:    
      

 

Well the evening of March 18th 2004 saw me bagging my first wing. The big gap in the photo's was caused by general panic setting in as I thought my resin was setting very early. This has proven to be a misconception, the resin has a thixotropic feature and "gels" when rolled thin, but is still workable.

Now on with the show. This page has some outline words and thumbnails of the activities. Clicking a thumbnail picture will take you to a larger version, often with extra words.

First the preparation:

Cutting the Kevlar cloth using Greaseproof paper templates stuck on with a 3M re-stickable glue stick.
05 Cut Kevlar Left.jpg (21905 bytes)  07 Cut Kevlar Right.jpg (23503 bytes)   01 Kevlar Template 1 using 45deg guide.jpg (33762 bytes)  03 Kevlar Templates On  (all).jpg (25725 bytes)

The wing core was sanded, the beds tack glued to the bench (as a jig for the wing as it cures) and the LE strip glued on with 3M77
10 Sanded Core on Beds with LE Strips.jpg (25249 bytes)  12 Wing core with LE strip 3M77'd in place.jpg (25143 bytes)

The Mylars were drawn out and the LE and Tip cut to shape. Then they were placed on a white backing paper and polished.
20 Mylars Ready to Polish.jpg (36653 bytes)  22 Mylars Polished.jpg (36382 bytes) 

The dry cloth was laid on the Mylars to check I had all the pieces and knew where to put them. First the glass doublers, then the Uni-Carbon LE (Well oversized) and finally the Kevlar shaped pieces cut out above.
24 Dry Glass on Mylars.jpg (35386 bytes)  26 Dry Carbon-Glass on Mylars.jpg (42902 bytes)  28 Dry Kevlar-Carbon-Glass on Mylars.jpg (40020 bytes)

Then I mixed the Epoxy and did the lay-up:

The first task was to wet out the LE (attached to the core) and wet out and attach the small Kevlar Tip Doublers. The tip doublers were wet out on the Mylars and then a small amount of Epoxy rolled onto the cores and they were place in position and the T.E.'s trimmed.
32 Wetting out tip doublers before placing on wing.jpg (41029 bytes)  30 LE wet-out and Tip Doublers on.jpg (29088 bytes)

Then the Epoxy was rolled onto the Mylars and the cloth added in the same order as the dry run. Not many pictures as I was panicking :-)
40 Rolling Epoxy onto Mylars.jpg (39636 bytes)  50 Wetted Cloth on Mylars.jpg (41195 bytes)

The excess Epoxy was blotted off with kitchen towels and the Carbon and Kevlar were trimmed short at the tips.
55 Carbon and Kevlar trimmed short at tip.jpg (41284 bytes)

Then the Mylars were lifted, the excess Carbon trimmed with scissors and the core placed between them. Finally it was all placed in the Bag.
60 First Wing in the bag.jpg (42190 bytes)

48 Hours later it's out of the Bag:
70 Wing out of the bag.jpg (30613 bytes)

Now the finishing can begin......

 

<< Back to Phil Barnes XP3 Technique         ^Back up to Wing Fabrication