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  1. S

    Sidestick control vs control yoke vs panel-mounted control wheel

    This and throw in a roundabout late at night after a long flight.
  2. S

    Dragonfly MK2 or MK2H MAIN GEAR

    I have a set of MK2 gear legs that I will not be using. If you want them, they can be had for the cost of shipping. They originally had the HAPI brakes and wheels on them, but the HAPI stuff is junk. If anyone has any photos of a MK3 nose gear mounting, I would appreciate a photo or two.
  3. S

    My foam cutter

    I used stainless steel safety wire for my foam cutter. I had a step down transformer with a light dimmer. Worked great
  4. S

    What Vacuum pump to buy?

    I got the 20% off coupon for HF and bought their single stage vacuum pump. I built an accumulator tank out of 4" PVC pipe and end caps. I screwed in brass fittings and valves. It works great, will pull a good vacuum, and has run for considerable lengths of time. No problem after 3 years and...
  5. S

    High Density Foam for Hardpoints

    I bought some PVC Divynicell boat foam that appears to be metric. It is approximately 1/2" thick and is scored on both sides with scores approximately on 1" centers. As far as I can ascertain it is approximately 9 lb foam. My plans say to use 1" thick 8 lb urethane to replace the styrene...
  6. S

    EFIS For Homebuilt / Experimental Aircraft.

    I have been looking into making an EFIS using Arduino and either a PC or Raspberry PI for the display. There appears to be drone or RC guys out there that have made considerable progress. The one I found the most interesting and informative was using the MPU-9250 9 DOF chip and a BMP280...
  7. S

    Epoxy for fuel tanks

    I actually have a HDPE tank that could make a good header tank. The polyethylene material absorbs some of the fuel and expands, so they recommend allowing for the expansion when you mount that. There could be problems wrapping it with fiberglass. Another thing I found was the permeability of...
  8. S

    Epoxy for fuel tanks

    I have been doing some research into the various materials and how they are affected by fuel with ethanol content in case we choose to use it or end up having no choice. It seems that no matter what we use to build our tanks there will be some comprimises. Here are some highlights of what I...
  9. S

    Epoxy for fuel tanks

    I am at the point of building fuel tanks and have been looking at options for epoxy and vinylester. The most common vinylester, which I have, looks like it might not be as fuel/ethanol compatible as I thought it would be. Apparently there are types specifically designed for fuel storage...
    • Slars
    • Thread
    • fuel resitant epoxy
    • Replies: 33
    • Forum: Composites
  10. S

    DIY gauges??

    Here is an option that I have been playing with. It is written using the Lazarus programming package which is open source (free) software based on the Free Pascal Compiler. It is compiled code and can be compiled to run on Windows or Linux. It could run on a tablet or just about any other...
  11. S

    Bondo in glass

    It's only to temporarily hold the wing in the jigs, so the twist and alignment is correct after glassing the second side.
  12. S

    Bondo in glass

    The plans I have say to use Bondo to glue the wing cores into the jigs. The first side I glued the foam cores together with micro and set them in the jigs. This worked quite well. It made for good alignment and was easy to vacuum bag the wing. Glassing the second side sets the twist in the...
  13. S

    Wing foam bonding

    Thanks for the comments. It doesn't really instill confidence. I think I will avoid riding in that airplane if I get the chance.
  14. S

    Wing foam bonding

    I recently looked at a nicely built composite wing that I was told had the wing foam pieces glued together with a 3M spray glue before the glassing was done. The owner told me he felt it was easier than using micro as specified in the plans. Is this something that's likely to cause a structural...
  15. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    Got it. Thanks for the input.
  16. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    Thanks for the comments Billski. I was concerned they looked dry after unbagging and ripping off the peel ply, so I posted the pictures. The pictures are of approximately 4 x 4 inch samples I put on scrap foam specifically to test for this problem before I start making critical parts. They...
  17. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    Normally micro is used to fill the open cells in the foam, but it has a tendency to get the glass beads in the layup when vacuum bagging. I used pure epoxy to fill the open cells to avoid the problem. The fiberglass was applied and wet out with epoxy. It just seems to me that the vacuum is...
  18. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    I thought they looked dry too. They were wetted out nicely before the vacuum bag was sealed and pumped. I tried separating the fibers in the threads without success, but I am concerned that there isn't enough epoxy between the thread bundles. It seems I've got some more testing to do before I...
  19. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    I agree and appreciate the response. Unfortunately it's really the only option I have here. I'm concerned about the areas between the fiber bundles and how there seems to be a lack of epoxy there. Is it normal for vacuum bagged parts or am I doing something wrong? I'm getting good...
  20. S

    Is this vacuum bagged layup OK?

    Additional note: These have had the peel ply removed.
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