Re: REFLECTOR: Trim Spring and Triax

["Benjamin David Cowan" <bdcowan@telepath.com>]

Now on the issue of triax, a simple rule would be to apply it so that
you see the uni bundles when it's applied. That is the only way I know
to see  if you get a lot of kinked fibers. Plus it lays "flatter" on the
surface it's being appied to, if the uni bundles are against the
bulkhead or whatever, I pretty sure that you would be trapping more
epoxy back there inbetween the bundles. Which brings me to my final
thought. Use peel ply where you know you will have a secondary layup,
and use it on the edges to prevent the meathooks, but don't cover an
entire surface, one reason as previously stated is that you won't see
air bubbles, but I'm convinced that you actually hold more epoxy
inbetween the uni bundles adding more weight.
Maybe just one more thought, Plan ahead look at other peoples work as
much as you can, I've been lucky to have been building in Florida, where
there are so many to see. But rather than use a lot of peel ply and have
a bunch of secondary bonds, I come from the school of thought that wants
to put in as many "wet" layups at one time to get true molecular bonding
and not worry about how well I sanded before putting on another layup on
top of another.  I feel that this can be particularly true when you put
in the massive gear bulkhead layups, and in the installation of the
canard bulkhead/ front gear layups and keel.


    That's pretty much exactly my thinking on all of the above.. I've just
finished skinning the firewall and used peelply on the edges and the
edges of the reinforcements where they need to contour to get down
to the main layer on the aft side.. Leaves a cleaner contour. I intend to
layup as much as possible at once where the project is concerned rather
than sand and get a weaker structure.  Funny though that there isn't any
definite way to apply the triax.. I mean people are about 50 50 on the
subject of which side goes down.. I did it with the uni facing up I felt the
major axis was less likely not to stick to the bulkhead, put alot of epoxy
on
the wood and let it sap into the fiberglass well, then pulled as much back
out without getting to dry.. No bubbles thusfar that I can tell.. For my
first
layup it went well..

David

Std RG E