On short notice, I took a week off of working on the Defiant project. A friend of mine was coming to Phoenix to do a commercial glider add-on, so I invited myself along on the adventure. It was about a week of really fun flying. I highly recommend it. After my soaring sabbatical, it wasContinue reading “Soaring Break and Greg’s in the Garaggio”
Tag Archives: mold making
Lower Cowl Mold, times two
The lower cowl geometry doesn’t lend itself well to making it a single piece mold. The centerline scoop/tunnel/boat tail has geometry that would “capture” the plug, and subsequent parts, in the mold if it was laid up as a single piece. You can still do a single piece mold, but there are some draw backs.Continue reading “Lower Cowl Mold, times two”
We have a Cowl Mold; Inspired by Sid
The last few days, when I have been looking at the rear cowl, I have thought that the trailing edge shape reminded me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Turns out, it is the character Sid from the cartoon movie, Ice Age. While I am fairly certain this destines Brian’s Defiant to henceforthContinue reading “We have a Cowl Mold; Inspired by Sid”
Prepping for Mold Making with Jodi
On Monday, I got to the point in contour sanding and surfacing on the cowl where I was struggling to find flaws that needed to be fixed. Don’t get me wrong, there were still minor flaws, but most of them small enough that I would be liable to go backwards instead of making improvements ifContinue reading “Prepping for Mold Making with Jodi”
Polish and Repair
A bit of my workshop time was taken up by errands today. So my to do list didn’t get as much attention as I would have liked. Never the less, I took a few more bites of the proverbial elephant. It started with trimming the flanges. The PVA came off with our mold, as expected.Continue reading “Polish and Repair”
We have a mold
Yesterday was a very good day in the workshop. It started a little slow as I was working on small tasks on the Legacy. Then Dave arrived, and we decided it was time to release the mold. I had some discussion with Dave about whether or not to build a rigid structure around the moldContinue reading “We have a mold”
Firsts
First time making a “real” mold… First time using chopped mat… 115 degrees, single handed…. what could possibly go wrong. Today I laid up the aft top cowl mold. It was a hot, long day. The temperature was over 100 by 0845 and 115 by the time I finished the layup. I started by doingContinue reading “Firsts”
Once Bitten
Twice Shy. I am going to skip right to the end of the story since the last few posts have been pretty long. Since my morning got consumed and I changed my mold plans, I wasn’t ready to spray my new PVA on the mold until almost 6 PM. This time I looked at theContinue reading “Once Bitten”
Prepping For Mold Making
Saturday and Sunday were all about prepping for mold making. As you saw in the last post, the surface was very good as evidenced by the reflections. In the video, you will see more reflections and even better ones from yesterday morning when I called it quits on contour sanding. The majority of the timeContinue reading “Prepping For Mold Making”
Wet Sanding, New Tools, and a Visitor
The last two days were filled with wet sanding the aft top tool cowl. Last we left off, I had sprayed black primer on the surface. This was to give me a guide coat. As you start sanding the primer on the highs sands away and the low spots remain black. This gives more ofContinue reading “Wet Sanding, New Tools, and a Visitor”
the Garaggio 