180 yrd roll of spar cap tape for sale

[Steve Innova]

I have a roll of 180 yrds of spar cap tape for sale. AC Spruce sells it for $1.55/yrd = $279, make me an offer.

[Rubber Boot]

Is the spar cap tape still available??

[Waiter]

I also have some tape, its not a full roll, I need to unwind it and see how long it is!

 

(The rest of the story)

 

During original construction in late 1980s, I was working a contract job out at the Sub base in San Diego ( I lived in San Jose). In order to continue working on my LongEZ, I rented a storage warehouse out in Otey Mesa and would would sleep out there and work on my plane when I wasn't at the base.

 

During the summer, it gets HOT out there. This is great for doing layups as the epoxy wets out thinner than water,

 

On this particular day, I was doing a spar cap layup on a wing, I no sooner lay in a piece of spar tape, and it would be mostly wetted out from the previous layer.

 

I was nearing completion and was mixing a final batch of epoxy when I noticed "SMOKE" coming from the wing:yikes:

 

I made a quick decision and reached down and pulled the entire spar cap off the wing. What amounted to 1/2 days work work, was now a smoldering pile of twisted and curled "Contemporary Art" on the floor of the warehouse. Thirty seconds after I did the yank, it was as hard as a rock.

 

Due to the volume of epoxy in a small area and an outside air temperature that had to be 120 deg, my spar cap went into "exo-therm".

 

The wing cores survived with no damage. I re-sanded the troughs for bonding, and ordered a new roll of Spar tape to replace the material lost in the exo-therm event.

 

Waiter

[Nathan Gifford]

Great story. I will keep it very much in mind when I do the spars...

[Steve Innova]

Yes, my spar caps got quite warm, never any danger of burning though.

 

Use all slow MGS. This is one of the most painful layups. Layer after layer of spar cap material. Each layer has to be wetted out completely, the fibers strait. No shortcuts here!

 

It'll take a twice as long as you think it will. Maybe 8 hrs or more. Get a helper for this.

 

Also -- the layers are tapered, with long layers covered by progressively shorter layers. Instead of putting down the longest layers first, and covering w/shorter layers, reverse it and put down the short layers first. You'll have better transitions between layers, and the first layers will go down easier as you're just getting the hang of things.

[Steve Innova]

Oh yeah... last but not least. The spar cap tape is SOLD