REFLECTOR: structural adhesive and milled glass?

[Andy Millin]

Doug,

 

I couldn't agree more with John.  The gray stuff will run.

 

Cabo has been a real learning experience for me.  It does thicken the mix.
You can make it so stiff that it will give your hands cramps while you stir.
But, even when I thought I had it "thick enough" that it could never run, it
ran; or at least it sagged.  Cabo doesn't seem to add much in the way of
structure.

 

Milled fiber is glass, it doesn't soak up the epoxy.  The milled fiber is
simply held in suspension.  If I use milled fiber alone, I can almost
guarantee it will sag and move.  It does spread smoothly though.

 

Flox WILL soak up the epoxy.  The downside of using just Flox is that it
tends to mix into something akin to wet paper towels.  It will be thick, it
will stay in place, but it doesn't spread well and loves to ball up and be
lumpy.

 

Learning to mix your goop seems to be one of the dark arts of composite
construction.

 

My method for structural stuff, FWIW.

 

Mix the epoxy to the correct ratio.

 

Add flox in small amounts.  It will stir into a slush.  I don't want any
lumps.  If it gets lumpy, then remove some of the flox   Hee hee.

 

Then I add about an equal amount, by volume, of milled fiber.  Mix it up.

 

Last, I add cabo to get the mix to the desired consistency.

 

It will spread nicely, and it will stay where you put it.

 

A little complex, but it really does work.

 

Again, FWIW,

 

Andy

 

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Douglas Holub
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:59 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: structural adhesive and milled glass?

 

The plans say to glue the strakes to the center section spar using
structural adhesive and cabosil or EZ-poxy and flox. I don't have any
cabosil and I want to attach the strake bottoms tomorrow. Would stuctural
adhesive and milled glass be good?

 

Doug Holub

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