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I made my first attempt at glassing a wing over
Thanksgiving weekend, with very poor results. Due to brain failure, I got
lacquer thinner on the cores and ruined them. The area that did not get
thinner on it became my practice subject.
I used one layer 4oz cloth with Aluzine epoxy from
Fiberglass Hawaii (both are high quality products leftover from surfboard and
kayak construction). I had a single carbon fiber tube for a spar.
The wing is about 4 feet long and a has a 6" chord. Aluzine is UV
resistant, sands well, and can be layered with polyester resin or itself without
sanding because it makes no amine blush. It is expensive and I figured it
would work well for a small wing as well as a surfboard. I've also worked
with WEST system epoxy (14' ply & glass fishing boat) and it has
behaved similarly on non-R/C projects.
Even after letting the epoxy cure for two days, the
epoxy was sandable but the wing was still soft - I could easily squish it with
my fingers - and the trailing edge was very flexible. I removed the spar
and easily flexed the wing - it bent about 90 degrees with the bottom skin
buckling, then the top skin tore, snapping the foam. Is one layer of 4oz
glass enough? Is this a sign of needing a different epoxy? I'll
stick to balsa sheeting until I figure out what I did wrong.
TIA
-Silas-
PS. Flew and built all Thanksgiving weekend
long. Ezagi lost two props before being grounded by windy
conditions. Flew Zagi LE in 45mph winds with 55mph gusts at two new slopes
and found a grassy slope for soon to be finished
Toucan.
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