Q-talk 86 - Q-tips - Kurt's Korner

1) Buy those line levels and Bondo them to everything important. They are cheap and will come in handy later. I wish I had bonded several to my Canard BEFORE I broke it loose from the jig table. Makes it easier to mount later. Also don't assume the garage floor is level (for mounting things like the canard, landing gear, etc.) Use the line levels to check this; I found my floor had a 3/4' crown (I guess for water drainage), which would have messed up the gear mount. I made a "grid" out of 6 line levels stretched across anchors to create a "plane" for the plane gear reference.

2) I am in the canopy-mounting phase and protecting the canopy with a latex elastic film (the original sheet was removed) is important protection. Don't remove the original film until your ready, or protect it with some plastic because you'll be handling it a lot.

3) I just mounted my Mag box and, if you haven't done this yet, after making a mock-up sample, use your "fake firewall" to check the fit. Don't wait until the cowling mount stage to make this fake firewall because you'll be using it a lot before then. It's a lot easier than correcting a "mistake" hole in the real firewall. When the real mag box has been glassed, you can mount it temporarily to the fake firewall and install your engine using your engine mounts to check for fit. If all is well, then it's just a matter of transferring the cutout pattern from your fake firewall pattern to the real firewall and mounting the Mag Box.

4) You'll be cutting lots of glass during the project. I created a glass cutting table with two saw horses and half of an interior door from scrap. It's cheap, light, and portable. You can lay the glass out and "roll" cut it with a cloth "pizza" type cutter from the fabric store. If you really want to get fancy buy a nice long (48') metal straight edge from the hardware store and mark 45 degree angles on the door to overlay the straight-edge. Makes glass cutting a cinch.

5) The glass cut pieces can be made a little oversized and trimmed later when wetted between the plastic sheets (most people know the 2-plastic sheet squeegee technique for BID tapes, etc. right?). This makes for very clean BID tapes without ragged edges and the tapes can be cut perfectly after measured and marked with a felt tip permanent marker on the plastic.

 


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