fiberglass tapes

On 20 Oct 2006 13:03:09 -0700, "Reggie" wrote:

One way to keep your hand cut,45 deg, bias tapes neat and uniform
is to lay them up on clear poly (Home Depot plastic sheeting) then
after you get them worked to your best epoxy / glass ratio,
cut the assembly to your needed width & length and cary the layup
with the nonstretching poly backing , flip over and apply to the
joint.

Peal the backing off , finish and inspect.

That's one of the methods they show for doing multiple lay-ups such as
the wing attach points on the G-III. I've wasted more fiberglass and
resin trying to do that than on any other approachsigh It sounds
good in theory and I've seen guys do it successfully, but not me.

It depends on the surface, but if I can lay the tape on top: I use a
cloth marking pen (marks disappear in an hour or so) to mark the cloth
on the cutting table, roll the tap up, mark the surface on which the
lay-up will be done for the proper width, wet the surface with a
light coat of resin, lay the tape out as I unroll it (push to widen,
or pull the narrow - do the same while stippling) then using a one
inch paint brush, stipple the resin into the tape.

I use vinyl ester resin which has a much lower viscosity than most
epoxies although the West System is fairly low.


Reggie
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com