Fiberglassing a foam nose cone...

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RocketflierVB

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Hello all,

I miraculously managed to turn down a nose cone for my scale HVAR.

2013-04-27 16.28.54.jpg

How does one fiberglass a nose cone? I am afraid of goobing it up with out some basic knowledge.

Thanks in advance.

Eric
 
I found this method on the interwebz, it's not my original idea. But, I can't find the website again.... of course....

Rig a way to mount the thing horizontally. Bisect the perimeter at the base and place a mark on each side. Then extend marks as lines straight up to the tip, thus with the two lines bisecting the cone into two halves. Lay masking tape under the line on each side, in several strips wide (you're getting epoxy on this, don't be cheap). Make sure the tape is lined up carefully to the lines you drew, and under them (as the cone sits horizontally. The tip is a bit tricky as there isn't much to stick to and the tape ends up sticking to the tape on the other side too.

Cut some paper or plastic sheet or something to make a template for the glass- it'll be roughly a curved triangular shape. You want the shape to hang at least a couple inches below the taped line so you have extra. Plenty of extra at the tip is good. Speaking of the tip- this really works best if the tip is pointy, not a dowel... ;-)

So now you can glass half of the cone, one "hemisphere... uh, hemicone?" if you willl. The top half, as it lays mounted horizontally. Lay the glass over, get it smoothed out nicely and draped (it will drape without wrinkles) and apply epoxy to the glass, work it through to wet out and wet the foam. I don't wet the foam first in this case as it invariably needs some adjusting and that's just easier dry.

Work the epoxy down and make sure the glass is wet out to the tape line and a little past it. Don't over do here and get epoxy beyond the tape strip.. At the tip, you will need to get some clothespins and pull the glass down tight to wrap against the top of the cone all the way up to the tip. Put the clothespins along the bottom, pinching both sides of the glass together. The original advice I read on this said to wrap the top of the tip with release film or peel ply or you could use garbage bag plastic and pinch that along with the glass. Whatever, just get the tip pulled down hard so it doesn't gap up.

Allow to dry to the green plus a little stage (pretty darn stiff, but not full cure) and use a razor blade to cut the glass back to the edge of the tape and your hemi-sphere-cone line. Also cut it along the shoulder or at the back edge of the airframe, if that's part of your cone, can't tell. Now you've got half of it glassed. Rotate 180 degrees, put the tape back on- this time it's sticking to the glass you just applied to allow for the other side. Repeat process. Now you've got a single layer, minus a little crack down the hemi-sphere-cone line. Rotate 90 degrees and lay on two more pieces. Now you've got 2 layers, the first crack is covered and there's a tiny crack with just one layer. At this point, with 7 oz, I stopped. It's pretty darn good, a third layer would make it really really stiff.

Takes a little while, but I did a 32"+ 7.5" cherokee upscale cone this way. Had it down to about 45 minutes per piece from walk in to walk out. Just be sure to plan so you can catch the leather stage while you're awake!

N
 
I attended several workshops on cones from the NASSA group (in one of the pictures leaning on the table). Getting the foam straight was my toughest part - takes practice and I had a few too many wobbles. The workshop made it look easy (better tools, more space). You seem to have that done well on the foam part.

I did the 2 layers, trim, rotate 180 and do 2 layers again and trim.
rotate 90 and repeat. 4 layers total with 9oz on my builds using 7781 from Thayercraft. Took a long time with US Composites Fast to cure. I sped up the cure using my oven on the lowest setting and of course got some deformation in the foam (melting). Just don't rush and do some of the stupid things I did to try to speed it up. A warm car in the sun is a better choice.

Getting the tip right with the clothes pins to help is a bit tricky. I made a total of 4 cones and none look that great (all issues with getting the foam right, and one issue with the epoxy due to my melting the foam underneath.

Good to at least try to make a few. See how you do, if you like it, etc. Standard tube sizes always leave buying a cone as an option.
 
What I have done for compound-curved surfaces is to cut the cloth into smaller pieces and lay them on in a random pattern, overlapping to produce 3-5 layers.
 
Eric, as John suggests, I'm planning on overlapping strips when I do the SEVRA WAC Job nosecone. Let me know how yours turns out.
 
[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE][video=youtube;8D0VwPjdn5M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0VwPjdn5M[/video]
 
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For quicker curing of epoxy on larger projects I use a small $20 space heater on the floor about a foot away from the work . Speeds drying and not have to worry about over heating the piece. Low setting, 750 watts is fine.
 
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