See below See N64KR at http://KR-Builder.org - Then click on the pics
There is a time for building and a time for FLYING and the time for building has expired. Daniel R. Heath - Columbia, SC See you in Mt. Vernon - 2005 - KR Gathering -------Original Message------- I have a couple of questions on your reply's. 1. First give yourself only as much canopy edge as you need to secure it and then put on your fiberglass tapes as neatly as possible, using the plastic backing method. Then after that cures, take off the vinyl tapes and re-tape it about 1/8 of an inch deeper into the canopy. Do you lay on both layers of tape, sand then micro? Yes, and if you use the "plastic backing" method, you will not have to be too concerned about trimming the edges. I cut the fiberglass tapes on the bid to avoid raveling. Lay them on a sheet of plastic, 3 mil clear works good. This clear sheet will have been prepared ahead of time with a drawing of exactly what you want the fiberglass tapes to be like. You will turn them over before laying on the fiberglass. Use a wider cut of fiberglass, so you will have some to trim off and make a neat edge. Apply the resin, wet out and squeegee out, being careful not to mess up the tapes too bad. Cut the result with a "pizza" cutter that you can find in the cloth section of your local Wal Mart. If you want to be really neat about it you can even sandwich the fiberglass in clear plastic before cutting it, but I think you get a cleaner cut of the fiberglas if you do it the less neat way. Put the glass tapes on the sanded area of the canopy after wetting that area of the canopy with a light coat of resin. You do that with one of the little throw away 1" brushes. Then peel off the clear plastic. Oh, and, I think that "heavy", rough ( 40/50 ) grit, sanding of the canopy is required. This stuff does not like the resin too much. 2. After I have put on the filler and sanded, I like to do the last process again, with no filler, to get as fine a fairing to the canopy as possible. Is this just a resin coat? Doesn't that make it harder to sand? Actually, I use Super Fil instead of micro, but what filler you use should make little difference. So, you have put on the filler and sanded to the vinyl tape of the second taping. You have gotten it as clean as you can, sanding to the vinyl tape. The thing is, that vinyl tape has a thickness and you will now want to get rid of that thin edge that may still be butt up against that vinyl tape. So, you remove that tape. Now you tape again using your "painting" tape. This is the best vinyl tape that you can get from the paint store. It is made specifically for painting fine edges. This tape is put on about 1/8" further into the canopy, from where the last tape was. You don't put anything else on it. Now you sand, using the grit that you will use just before painting. For me it is 220 and then 400. This fine grit will not harm the vinyl tape and it will cut off the edge of the filler that was left by the last tape and it will prepare the area of the bare canopy ( 1/8" ) for paint. Now you have an absolutely smooth fairing from the fiberglass to the surface of the canopy and the only edge that you will have when you are finished is that of the paint and I know of no way to avoid that. Now, you know that you are going to have to match the pattern of all this, on the other side. That is how you hide all the ugliness of this, showing thru the canopy to the other side. One more question. Did you use the 2" BID tape that the plan book talks about? I use whatever I am using. It could have been the RR cloth or the Rutan cloth. The RR cloth is a little lighter. Use whatever you have been building you plane with. I don't buy special tapes. I make them as described above. PS: I owe all I know about this method of making tapes to Mark Langford. I learned about it at the gathering at Pine Bluff, which was just after I started working on this plane. I was sitting there, doing nothing and they announced a forum on working with fiberglass. I thought, "I don't need that, after all, I have already built one KR, what could I learn". Well, "I don't have anything else to do, so I might as well listen in". I learned more about working with fiberglass than I ever knew, in that one session. My advise to all of those who have not been, GO TO THE GATHERING.
