I’ve been thinking of getting a welder for a while now, it seems like one of these “generally useful” things. Finally, I bit the bullet, read a bunch of online reviews, and ordered an AlphaTig 200X TIG welder. This is pretty much the cheapest TIG welder you can get that can weld Aluminum, and while …
I don’t think anyone’s noticed, but I figured I should mention something for posterity: Plane work has come to a temporary stop. Early this summer we found out that we will be moving from LA to Hawaii this fall so Kathy can start her new job as Professor of Astronomy at University of Hawaii, Hilo! …
I got a big chunk of 1/4″ 6061 aluminum plate and tried to mill it, with pretty depressing results. The setup just was nowhere near rigid enough to handle it. The force on the bit would cause enough flexure to pull the bit to the side or cause it to jam into the material. A …
While the ShapeOko worked much better with the Ridgid trim router than with the Dremel, the default spindle mounting brackets for the ShapeOko didn’t fit well because it’s so much wider than the Dremel. To even get it in there, I had to take it apart and remove the height adjustment mechanism. First order of …
As I’m now about to start fabricating actual parts for the Long-EZ, I was contemplating the easiest way to shape the foam pieces. This Long-EZ builder used a router to cut the depressions, but was left to do the tapered parts by hand. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way to do this …
In the first part of the “gasoline experiment”, I had just sealed up the cube and was waiting for it to cure and see if it leaked. I realized that it was pretty important to keep the cure temperature as even as possible so as to not produce any pressure change inside before the flox …
In the Long-EZ and related aircraft, the fuel tanks are integral to the structure. The strakes on each side of the fuselage are hollow and contain the fuel. They are made of the same glass/foam sandwich as the rest of the structure, which is fine because the epoxy is impervious to gasoline. … to pure …
After the 6-ply flat and confidence layups, the third and final practice layup is the bookend. This is more complicated than the others and is designed to let you practice shaping urethane foam, making corners, and to show you how the fiberglass conforms to complicated shapes. So the idea is to make a book end out …
Since making the two practice layups (first here and second here), I asked around what the ideal cloth/resin ratio should be, and the consensus seems to be that a reasonable amount of resin to get to with an open layup without letting air in is about a 60:40 weight ratio of cloth and resin. Vacuum …
I made one more “confidence layup”. This one I did according to the instructions. When I made the first one, I had misread the instructions and used polyvinyl foam instead of polyurethane. The PV foam is a lot stronger and is used in structural applications on the airplane, so this should have made the piece …