Sunday, June 29, 2008

Wings: Sheet Metal: LE Wrap Installation

Following are pics of installation of the Leading Edge (LE) Wrap, which was completed nearly a month ago. First pic shows use of Dremel drill with sanding flapper wheel (80 grit) removing the anodization from the spar at bonding area. This is important so that the epoxy bonds the wrap and spar well. The bonding areas also need to be roughed up for bonding with 80 grit sandpaper. Masking tape was used to control alignment of sanding ops on the spar.


Below is LE wrap being bonded to the spar. I used quick clamps at nearly every rib location to distribute pressure on a 1x2 oak strip which then distributed pressure to the LE wrap/spar. Waxed paper was placed under the strip so that it would not stick when removed. The epoxy used was DP-460 (Dow product?) which was applied using a helical mixing tip that mixes resin and hardener automatically so that an even bead can be applied.

Here is the finished leading edge after masking tape was removed and excess glue was removed with an exacto knife.


In a similar manner the trailing edges of the upper and lower root skins were bonded with epoxy (not shown). Next step is to fill-in area forward of LE wrap with bondo filler and then sand to get a nice smooth contour between spar and wrap.

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