I hope these tips are helpful for other builders. For liability reasons I can not be made responsible for any errors. You can take your advantage of these tips but please be aware that you as the builder are fully responsible for your project.
Click on the pictures for larger picture
Updated December 2000
|
My "sanding booth". I made a clear plastic curtain around my working table. Sanding dust is sucked away by a kitchen fan. | |
My advice: never work with epoxy without safety glasses, gloves and an organic vapour respirator ! It would be very sad if you would have to quit building because of an epoxy allergie. | |
|
This is how I clamped the foam in the stabilizer frame. The steel rods are treaded (M8). | |
Before I covered the inside of the fuselage with 1 mm ply I glued foam between the verticals. This wil reduce the sound level a little bit. | |
|
Clamp the gear with the castings to the spar. Then drill all holes. This way everything will fit perfectly. |
Updated December 1999
 |
Drilling of wing attachment fittings. Make a drilling template (steel) first. |  |
As an alternative to stapling the ply to the frame I used concrete bricks to get sufficient clamping pressure for glueing. Take care that your table can handle the load of the bricks ! | |
 |
Clamping of 2 gusset blocks simultaniously. The rods are made of 5 mm steel. |  |
To exactly line up the fuselage sides I made a rig with several jigs. | |
 |
Balance for mixing Aerodux glue (Ratio 1:5). As counterweight I used 6 identical Bolts. For mixing first put one bolt in cup. Then fill other cup with hardner powder until balance is level. Next put 5 identical bolts in cup. Fill up the other cup with resin until balance is level again. The result is a perfect mixture. For different amounts you can use different sizes of bolts. |  |
Jig used to line out the fuselage bottom. | |
 |
My scarfing machine. |  |
If you install the spars at this building stage you can use the table as reference (if you leveled your table before you started building) | |
 |
To keep the spar caps straight, they are made up out of several layers of spruce. |  |
I also used bricks to glue the ply to the fuselage bottom. Take very good care to support the bottom frame on the table since the fuselage bottom itself is not able to handle the load of the bricks !!!!!! | |
 |
For clamping of main spar you need lots of glue clamps ! |  |
I made the back turtledeck out of 15 mm polyurethane foam. To make the foam sufficient flexible I cut groves with my dremel. The ridge in the middle (laminated foam) is escential to get a straight result ! | |
 |
Seal the spar ends with ply. This wil prevent the spar for checking and taking up moisture. It also gives a very nice finish. Don`t forget to drill small holes, to conect each chamber with the atmosphere. |  |
The foam temporary glued on the fuselage is required to glue the turtledeck skin to. This foam will be removed later. | |
 |
This way straight drilling of the axel bolt holes in the springbar is a piece of cake. |  |
The result: straight and ligth weighted ! | |
 |
For clamping the gusset blocks I used a smal nail hammered in the table with a second nail pressed between the gusset block and the first nail. This way you keep tension on the gusset block while the glue is curing. |  |
The seats are build the same way as the turtledeck. The grooved foam is glued temporarily to the jig. | |
 |
When you put tape on the surface next to the place you want to glue, you can remove excessive glue after curing. |  |
The biggest gaps are filled with foam before the surface is laminated. The spruce cap is used for the screw holes. After laminating top side the seat is taken out of the jig. Now the bottom will be laminated (no jig required). |