I like working with Poly Fiber. The patches on various wear points and around the tank opening and landing light were next. All are cut with pinked edges. I like using a
Fiskars Rotary Cutter and cutting board. For straight cuts a plastic straight edge works well. All are available at local fabric shops. Also the scraps of fabric I used for patches were very wrinkled. They ironed very nice at 225 deg. I used my heat press I use for printing tee shirts. It has good temperature control and you just put the
peices in and clamp it shut for 5 second.
Next I cut all the
chordwise tapes to length 107" for the long ribs (at flaps) and 96" for the short ribs (at ailerons). There are a few other shorter pieces needed which I cut as I went. While doing the first side of the wing it's helpful to roll the tape half way and clip them with a large paperclip. It keeps the ends off the dirty floor.
.
.
.
The tapes went down as easy as cotton tapes with the Poly Brush thinned 3:1. The big difference is you need to work the Poly Brush up through the tape to wet it. It's what you should do with cotton but it wicks so well it just gets wet even if you don't get a good layer under it.
What is really cool is smoothing the edges of the tapes and patches. With cotton and
ceconite you spend a lot of time carefully sanding the pinked edges to get them smooth. With Poly Fiber you just use a small hobby iron at 225 deg. I like the
Coverite 21st Century that
Dondie sold me. The shape of the platen (
sole) is much better. It was a little boring but so easy by comparison to sanding and
redoping. They really come out smooth, it was great.
I like working with Poly Fiber. The patches on various wear points and around the tank opening and landing light were next. All are cut with pinked edges. I like using a Fiskars Rotary Cutter and cutting board. For straight cuts a plastic straight edge works well. All are available at local fabric shops. Also the scraps of fabric I used for patches were very wrinkled. They ironed very nice at 225 deg. I used my heat press I use for printing tee shirts. It has good temperature control and you just put the peices in and clamp it shut for 5 second.
Next I cut all the chordwise tapes to length 107" for the long ribs (at flaps) and 96" for the short ribs (at ailerons). There are a few other shorter pieces needed which I cut as I went. While doing the first side of the wing it's helpful to roll the tape half way and clip them with a large paperclip. It keeps the ends off the dirty floor.
.
.
.
The tapes went down as easy as cotton tapes with the Poly Brush thinned 3:1. The big difference is you need to work the Poly Brush up through the tape to wet it. It's what you should do with cotton but it wicks so well it just gets wet even if you don't get a good layer under it.
What is really cool is smoothing the edges of the tapes and patches. With cotton and ceconite you spend a lot of time carefully sanding the pinked edges to get them smooth. With Poly Fiber you just use a small hobby iron at 225 deg. I like the Coverite 21st Century that Dondie sold me. The shape of the platen (sole) is much better. It was a little boring but so easy by comparison to sanding and redoping. They really come out smooth, it was great.
