Lee Reep
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2002
- Messages
- 518
- Reaction score
- 0
It is a pretty fun exercise. I used a long cure epoxy, and thinned it with about 15% lacquer thinner (a number of solvents will work to thin epoxy, just check the label). This way, it brushed on easily, and was easy to squeegee off. I used a plastic lid from a butter tub, cut at a slight curve to be close to the profile of the tube being glassed, to aid in removing excess epoxy. If you leave toomuch epoxy on, you will be sanding forever.
Try 1 to 1.5 oz. cloth. Anything thinner will be too hard to handle -- too flimsy. I cut a piece slightly longer than the tube, and wide enough to go around the tube 2-3 times. Coat the tube, roll the glass on, apply more epoxy to the dry spots, and use the squeegee and your hands to work out most of the epoxy, and to smooth any wrinkles or bubbles. WEAR GLOVES!
To store for drying, suspend on a dowel, or a straightened piece of coathanger wire.
Once you get the hang of it (after doing a couple of tubes), you will have a nice sturdy tube that requires just a little sanding, and a few primer coats will fill the weave of the glass. Really makes spiral seams easy to hide. The ends can be trimmed with scissors, and then lightly sanded to blend into the tube. Don't be too concerned with little voids. You can fill with putty, or if really small, your primer coats can fill the voids.
On HPR stuff, I have even glassed over launch lugs. You cannot even see the strip when sanded to feather the edges into the tube. And of course, you can lay strips into fin-tube joints for strength.
Most of this is overkill for lowpower, but it can help beef up low-power kits to handle 24mm composite motors, without adding much weight.
Just seems so to me...
