REFLECTOR: Water in the ducts....

Sat Aug 6 13:44:20 CDT 2005

Another thing to think about is how much it will leak if left in the rain.
 Monday night at OSH it poured.  Earlier the guy next to me was taping all
his joints on his long ez.  I didn't know why he was doing this and should
have asked.  I found out later when my carpet got soaked from rain coming
in at the canard joint.  When I got home I used a fan to dry the carpet. 
It took one full day for each side.

John

> I agree the vacuum bagging technique would probably be best.  If I have
> to do it again (I HOPE not!), I will do it that way......when I first
> drilled the holes the water drained out via gravity. When I applied
> suction more came out, then just vapors then nothing....As I said I
> checked the holes by putting q-tips in and letting them sit for a few
> hours and all came out dry/clean.  I spoke to the factory...they had
> some water logged planes after hurricanes....they said they drilled a
> very few holes and allowed the water to drain out.....tipped the plane
> if necessary to assist draining and then after a while patched the
> holes. They said they have NEVER had anyone have problems with
> delamination of their floors due to water freezing....OK...now I hope I
> can make some FORWARD progress! (Instead of fixing my mistakes!) :-D
> THANX  your help is always appreciated!
>  Jeff Clough
>
> Jim Sower wrote:
>
>> <... I am pretty confident the foam substrate is dry ...>
>> I wouldn't be.  Shop vac pulls maybe 10" on a good day.  Using a
>> blanket, 4-mil plastic tarp and vacuum pump you'll get >20" over all
>> the holes at once.  At much above 26" water can't exist at warm room
>> temps and you will be sure you've drawn it all out.  For a pump, find
>> any thrown away refrigerator at the local transfer station/landfill
>> and pull the compressor out.  Connect the input end to your hose
>> (wrapped with blanket material in a fold in the plastic) and let 'er
>> rip
>>
>> When bagging parts, I use a calibrated leak to maintain vacuum at <10"
>>  ... Jim S.
>>
>>
>> Jeffrey Clough wrote:
>>
>>> Thanx Jim...similar to what I did....I attached a bunch of hoses to a
>>>  bunch of holes and put playdoh (yep ...PlayDoh) to act as a putty to
>>>  hold them in place then placed the other end of the bunch o' hoses
>>> into my shop vac and applied suction for a few hours....then moved on
>>>  to another set of holes...finally got to the point there was no
>>> longer even VAPOR condensing in the hoses ( I had heat lamps shining
>>> on the inside of the cabin and the air temp was in the 50's...Alaska
>>> evening temps)...To be sure , I pushed q-tips into the most offending
>>>  holes and they came out dry and with no food coloring tracer...I am
>>> pretty confident the foam substrate is dry...I let it sit for another
>>>  week or so and filled in all of the holes a couple of days ago....
>>>
>>> Jim Sower wrote:
>>>
>>>> What if you were to put some absorbent material, say, a towel over
>>>> all those 100 holes, tape a piece of 4-mil plastic over that and
>>>> vacuum bag that area?  Would be simple enough and would get a whole
>>>> lot more moisture out than a heat lamp.  I can give you some details
>>>>  on cheap, easy vacuum bagging suitable for this purpose.
>>>> This is certainly a cause for some concern ... Jim S.
>>>>
>>>> Jeffrey Clough wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> OK...I have read all the posts about water in the ducts.....There
>>>>> is a BIG question I have: Perhaps y'all read my posts about filling
>>>>>  my tanks with green water and finding leaks all through my floor
>>>>> boards.......if water collects in your ducts it could /*as easily
>>>>> */collect in the foam of *YOUR* floor.......WHAT happens when it
>>>>> FREEZES?   Delamination? I would expect so.....
>>>>>  I put heat lamps on my floor boards for a WEEK and tonight drilled
>>>>>
>>>>> test holes and found WATER.(I finally found the source of my leak
>>>>> was a vent line I had to put in to the right tank as a retrofit for
>>>>>  the newer sump tank and vent system...).....I finally drilled a
>>>>> HUNDRED holes through the fuselage to let water out and it WAS
>>>>> coming out...of a LOT of the holes...now I plan on letting the
>>>>> lights shine for some time before sealing all of the holes AND
>>>>> putting holes in the ducts where I can....I think it would be a
>>>>> GREAT idea to paint the area under your ducts (before assembly) AND
>>>>>  put drains in SEVERAL spots BEFORE glassing the ducts in!!!!  Does
>>>>>  this make anyone else sweat a little?     J Clough      173 RG
>>>>> clamshell
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