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Moldless Composites in the Modern Era

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dsigned

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Aug 8, 2018
Messages
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Illinois as of 08/12/2018
Moderator Note: This thread was broken out of the thread, "Rutan Quickie / Q200, Q1, Q2" as it had diverged pretty strongly from the original topic, but is a good conversation in its own right. /end note

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It is. And it's just as valid a choice for a one-off or plans-built design as it ever was. What "everyone knows" about moldless ("endless sanding", "thousands of hours sanding", etc.) is mostly bunk; rumors that were started by guys who didn't do a good job on their airplanes from the start and tried to sand out all their mistakes. I've heard horror stories about that sort of thing, right here on HBA.

While I suspect that today's builders are even less willing to "start finishing the airplane the moment you first cut foam", and do the other careful things necessary to make a nice moldless airplane like the Quickie in just a few hundred hours, I refuse to believe that the method can't be taught. We still have guys out there building fiberglass surfboards by hand from raw foam and glass, and they're as young as anyone. Today, people want their kitplane to snap together like a model from Revell. Actually, that's been the case since the 1990's. But however naïve it may be on my part, what I think we really need is another nice little design that uses moldless construction, and then a really good builder's manual that properly teaches technique along the way. We keep hearing that people want a scratch-build airplane, too, and they still want to build quickly and cheaply. Moldless is a natural for that, which is why Rutan picked the technique up from the German akafliegs in the first place.

I'm comfortable with the idea of fiberglass over foam. I'm 32. I think the maker community, and the R/C foamie community are both thriving in this respect. With the ubiquity of laser cutters and CNC, etc. I don't think the kit part is nearly as necessary as it used to be (but paradoxically it's probably a lot easier to provide).

As a follow up question: do you have any experience with Peel Ply? Apparently you put it on during lay up, then squeegee bubbles out, and it gives a finish that requires a lot less sanding.
 
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