After constantly seeing lots and lots of custom hand laid fiberglass and carbon fiber airframes. I wanted to get into the fun of making my own as well. I did lots of research on what type of weave style to use in terms of strength and weight. The 8 Harness Satin weave was my best choice. I found a good source that had it on special for $2 a yard. I ended up buying a wopping 3 yards from Coastal Composites https://www.coastalcomposites.com/ , which has a lot of great fabrics available on special. I got the fiberglass and now I am all set. I have already cut out the amount I am going to work with. I measured wrong, but it looks to me like it should turn out fine. The amount of wraps came out to be four wraps. The fiberglass will be laminated with Aeropoxy laminating resin (don't have it yet).
I then began to look up the best way to finish the lamination. Many use peel-ply, but I don't like it for the main reason that it leaves behind a raised ridge. Which is something I do not like, because of the fact that I have to sand it down flat. Instead I will be trying a different approach. I stumbled upon Soller Composites Heat shrink tubing material. I have some available and I have already tried it on a previous lamination that did not turn out too well, because I ran out of epoxy (was using 20 minute laminating epoxy). I discovered one unique advantage to this approach. When heating the heat shrink tubing, you also heat up the entire lamination. This gives the epoxy a heat cured process. Allowing for quick removal of the mylar and heat shrink tubing material.
Once I get the Aeropoxy laminating resin, I will post more pictures and steps to follow this procedure. I will be using my Cesaroni Pro54 2G motor as a mandrel. I will end up getting a good 9 inches of fiberglass airframe. Here are some pictures of the fiberglass and the heat shrinking material.
I then began to look up the best way to finish the lamination. Many use peel-ply, but I don't like it for the main reason that it leaves behind a raised ridge. Which is something I do not like, because of the fact that I have to sand it down flat. Instead I will be trying a different approach. I stumbled upon Soller Composites Heat shrink tubing material. I have some available and I have already tried it on a previous lamination that did not turn out too well, because I ran out of epoxy (was using 20 minute laminating epoxy). I discovered one unique advantage to this approach. When heating the heat shrink tubing, you also heat up the entire lamination. This gives the epoxy a heat cured process. Allowing for quick removal of the mylar and heat shrink tubing material.
Once I get the Aeropoxy laminating resin, I will post more pictures and steps to follow this procedure. I will be using my Cesaroni Pro54 2G motor as a mandrel. I will end up getting a good 9 inches of fiberglass airframe. Here are some pictures of the fiberglass and the heat shrinking material.
Last edited:
