Painting with latex house paint

[Geraldc]

Years ago a homebuilder here used plywood from tea chests.

 

[Twodeaddogs]

The Gazelle helicopter had a list of Renault and Citroen car parts in the manual so that mechanics could fix them in the field with locally available parts; the door handle on the cabin door is a car part.

 

[Pops]

Want to replace your inside door handles of your straight tail C-172 ? Look for Chevy truck door handles in 1955 and 1956. Want to replace your Piper Cherokee inside door handles ? Look for VW bug inside door handles.

 

[challenger_II]

I have seen it. Changed it out, immediately!
A LOT of the Hardware Store hardware issues come from folks using el-cheapo
hardware during the build, and then forgetting to change to AN hardware upon final
assembly. And, then, there are the "back woods" type that do it intentionally.

Me? AN hardware is cheap, compared to my expensive, tender butt...

Has anyone ever seen a Home Depot bolt on an airplane ? Or is it just an old wife's tale ?

 

[challenger_II]

Marble dust? Is that a product name, or an actual substance?

I would also add, that for a slightly firmer and less spongy surface, you can use the Stewart systems primer. It’s not expensive. I have also considered experimenting with adding marble dust to the second coat of gripper to firm it up just a bit.

 

[Daleandee]

I have seen some strange homebuilt airplane fixes. Big hardware store turnbuckle used as an adjustable bracket in the engine compartment. Telephone wire. Trailer tail light wire for strobes.

We currently have a fella at the airport that has one of these in his plane:



But it's OK as he also used the Romex 12-3 along with it ...

 

[ToddK]

Marble dust? Is that a product name, or an actual substance?

Its literal powdered marble. It’s used by artists to make gesso.

 

[rv7charlie]

ToddK,
Are you thinking about doing that for the aluminum & steel parts? Anything that makes the paint more rigid on the fabric would be counterproductive, it seems to me.

 

[ToddK]

ToddK,
Are you thinking about doing that for the aluminum & steel parts? Anything that makes the paint more rigid on the fabric would be counterproductive, it seems to me.

Just for the fabric. There is an ideal bit of firmness that the fabric ought to have. Strait gripper and latex in my opinion is just a bit shy of that, leaving it a little spongy feeling. As I wrote above the Stewart primer seems to take care of that, and white it’s not expensive, if I can firm up the gripper a tiny bit while still keeping its flexibility, then I have cheap winner.

 

[challenger_II]

My concern is adding an abrasive compound to a fabric surface coating.

 

[Gary Hogue]

We currently have a fella at the airport that has one of these in his plane:

View attachment 116284

But it's OK as he also used the Romex 12-3 along with it ...

I assume that's the Take Off/Land switch. Using EMT conduit would provide additional wire protection - especially in case of a prop strike. That way you'd still be able to land.

 

[rv7charlie]

Hey, there's a local legend (from before my flying time began) of a local guy who built an entire airframe out of EMT. It's been a looong time, but IIRC, the inspector gave him a flight test area that was the boundaries of his home county airport. (To make life easier for the SAR guys.)

 

[Daleandee]

I assume that's the Take Off/Land switch. Using EMT conduit would provide additional wire protection - especially in case of a prop strike. That way you'd still be able to land.

This is the same guy that had some leaky floats on his Rotax 503. Instead of paying the money for some new ones he decided to use some kind of sealer on the outside of the old ones. I told that would not work as the float weight would change but he insisted and pretty much thought I was an idiot that wasn't smart enough to outsmart those folks that were just trying to rip people off with ridiculous prices on new floats.

After a short, less than successful flight, and a couple of weeks time replacing the landing gear from an off airport landing, after the engine quit on take-off, he confessed that perhaps I was right and admitted to buying the proper replacement floats. Strange how I went from being a total idiot to a really smart fella in such a short time.

 

[challenger_II]

Some folks just have to learn the hard way.