Strake Ends and L.E.

[Neverquit]

I'm currently carving the strake ends. I want a perfect alignment so I attached the wings. I want to make the end gap straight and smooth. Wayne Hicks used a thin piece of plastic to micro a perfect mating edge. John and some others glassed the strake end to the wing and then cut them apart.

 

The glassing together thing sounds like a way to get a perfect match but it sounds like a pain to form the glass underneath with the wing attached. Especially now it's 60 deg. outside and difficult to wrap an electric blanket around it. Do you actually overlap the BID on the wing? When cutting, do you make the cut line 90 deg. to the attach points or finesse the line to run parallel to the centerline of the plane?

 

Wayne's way sounds good so I can squeege the micro on, let it cure, then hard shell the BID over it after removing the wing and putting the plane in its firewall.

 

Any other ideas?

[Neverquit]

And... is it good to fill the gap with foam and glass or better to leave it hollow?

[Wayne Hicks]

I was very careful to make my strake end structure to be very straight. Thus, I'm not relying on dry micro to form the edge by itself.

 

I used the plastic film only as a release. I used the film so I didn't need to be careful about spreading the micro.

 

Once the micro cured and I completed the contouring, I then opened the gap to the width I wanted.

[Neverquit]

I used the plastic film only as a release.

How did you hold the plastic in place?

 

Is the cut parallel to the longitudal axis of the plane or is it 90 deg. to the wing attach?

[Wayne Hicks]

How did you hold the plastic in place?

 

---> I held the plastic sheet in the seam with one hand and piled micro on each side. The micro holds it in place.

 

Is the cut parallel to the longitudal axis of the plane or is it 90 deg. to the wing attach?

 

---> The seam I'm talking about is along the leading edge wing root. That angle of the leading edge wing root is specified by the plans. The strake filler piece was fitted to match it leading edge wing root. If you're asking about the seam between the strakes and the aft half of the wing root (the part nearer to the engine cowls), that seam parallels the center section spar. It's not perpendicular to the fuselage longitudinal axis. It sort of sweeps aft a bit. But it follows the aft edge of the center section spar.

[Neverquit]

The seam I'm talking about is along the leading edge wing root.

That's the one. I leter found out at assembly it is impossible to cut parallel (Aerocad wings) to the fuse. -Thanks guys