The glassing thread.

[Mathieu]

Hi all,
I'll explain in detail the glassing process that i use. Did this a couple of months ago, as such have limited photos of the process. A friend and myself would be glad to glass one of your planes and do a good documentation. Will be more than happy to answer any questions. Ok, here goes..

[Mathieu]

Things needed, will elaborate later on,
1) Two paint brushes, thick and thin, flat.
2) 2 grades of sandpaper, abt 280 and 150.
3) Denatured alcohol, from any pharmacy.
4)The lightest cloth at NTC, cant find the label, think its 1/4 oz.
5) I use concentrated Acrylic Resin, flows well, dries fast and is light, most importantly though, the finished product is strong.
6) Water.
7) Bring on the plane.

[Mathieu]

Heres the Resin, its from the shop across Art Friend. Cant remember the name, sorry. Will update when possible.

[Mathieu]

To add on to the intro, you'd need a sharp pair of scissors and a scapel too.

Pro & Cons of glassing:
Glassing makes the material stiffer and stronger, at the expense of weight. The rigidity gives better handling at high speeds, put simply.

If glassed nicely, the plane can have a very smooth finnish.

Devin,
Most commonly, foam planes are glassed, reasons as above. People do glass balsa planes and such though, for extra strength.

Here's a peak at my glassed formosa,

[Mathieu]

Underside,

[Mathieu]

Use very mild sand paper, 280, to smoothen the surface. This is an important step, esspecially with moulded foam, i.e. GWS, the foam has little protrutions. Else, air bubbles would form.

Dont have pictures of the initial stages glassing the formosa, will now glass a piece of 5mm depron to demonstrate, the strength glassed would be compared to an unglassed piece of the same size.

[Mathieu]

Clean the foam dust with generous amounts of denatured alcohol, evapourates fast,

[Mathieu]

Place the cloth over and with a damp brush (do not dilute the Resin), paint the Resin on just like paint. It is not sticky and has the consistancy egg white, flows. Just be careful not to get the loose hairs over the place.

[stuka]

Glad that u r starting this thread so soon...

Do u get bubble forming using Acrylic Resin? I get plenty of bubbles using epoxy resin. Have u tried any mould release agent with Acrylic Resin?

[Mathieu]

It comes out of the bottle as a creamy liquid, no bubbles. A few more brush strokes and the creases ironed out. Takes about 10mins to fully dry, after seeing the picture with some indentations, i brushed gently over,

[Mathieu]

Small brush for the tight corners and stuff,

[Mathieu]

,

[Mathieu]

Here are the actual glassing pics,

[Mathieu]

Heres the whole wing, only the parts brushed with resin will stick, the rest can be cut after.

[Mathieu]

Ailerons,