Gluing on Fabric

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:49:09 -0500, "Robert Little"
wrote:

You might want to consider the results of the separation that occurred with
Steve Witman's Stits fabric glued onto the plywood wing that failed over
Alabama. How do you regularly inspect the glue for separation on a regular
basis?

Steve Witman's incident was one case out of hundreds of aircraft with
fabric bonded over plywood. You can't condemn them all from one case.
I just run it up to 160 mph and pull a few G's now and then , so far
so good. I'm 76 years old and don't plan on living forever!

Ed Sullivan

I'm curious, do you spread glue onto all the plywood, or do you glue
specific area's so the fabric can shrink?
Lou

On 15 Aug 2005 01:22:16 -0700, "Lou" wrote:

I'm curious, do you spread glue onto all the plywood, or do you glue
specific area's so the fabric can shrink?
Lou

You know it has been nearly twenty years since I did it, so without
looking up some paper work I don't exactly remember, however on the
open bays with cap strip I attached the leading and trailing edges,
and then shrunk the fabric before applying the solvent to attach the
fabric to the cap strips. I think I did the same on the areas of solid
plywood. On them I used a mixture of nitrate dope and a fabric
adhesive. It may have been Sureseam. It was installed heavily over
unvarnished ply and then brought up through the weave with a solvent.

Ed

Actually, the fabric on Steve's O-O Special wasn't "glued" at all -
that was the problem.
It was simply "doped" on - just like he had done for a hundred years or
so.

But the fabric was dacron this time.....
Not cotton.

Richard

"Richard Lamb" wrote in message
oups.com...
Actually, the fabric on Steve's O-O Special wasn't "glued" at all -
that was the problem.
It was simply "doped" on - just like he had done for a hundred years or
so.

But the fabric was dacron this time.....
Not cotton.

Richard
PLEASE don't confuse us with facts!
g
--
Jim in NC

(very contrite) Sorry?!?

Ed Sullivan wrote:
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:49:09 -0500, "Robert Little"
wrote:

You might want to consider the results of the separation that occurred with
Steve Witman's Stits fabric glued onto the plywood wing that failed over
Alabama. How do you regularly inspect the glue for separation on a regular
basis?

IIRC in Witman's case use of a suction cup during preflight inspection
showed that the bond was failing. He put off fixing it until after
arriving at OshKosh.


Steve Witman's incident was one case out of hundreds of aircraft with
fabric bonded over plywood. You can't condemn them all from one case.

You could if that one case was done right. Howeer IIRC, Mr Witman
used his own technique for applying the fabric.

--

FF