Basic Layup Procedure
- Preparation: Ply #9 or Gloves (Nitrile preferred) on hands, shop temperature 75° F ± 10 °. Don’t do the layup unless you know the shop will stay within this range during the entire curing time.
- Cloth Cutting: Use the electric scissors.
- Unless otherwise specified, cut at 45° to the fibers.
- Surface preparation:
- Foam: Hot-wire-cut surface needs no preparation. Sand ledges or bumps even. Fill holes or gouges with dry micro immediately prior to layup. Vacuum up the dust.
- Glass: Always sand to completely dull any cured glass surface with 36 or 60 grit sandpaper. Re-sand if it has been touched with greasy fingers.
- Metal: Dull with 220 grit sandpaper.
- Mix Epoxy:
- Mix for 2 minutes.
- 80% stirring, 20% scraping sides and bottom.
- Hot cup: Throw it away and mix more. A hot cup indicates exotherm.
- Don’t use a brush to stir.
- Micro Slurry: Approximately equal volume of mixed epoxy & glass bubbles.
- Wet Micro: Add enough bubbles for a “thick honey” mix.
- Dry Micro: Enough bubbles so it won’t run.
- Wet Flox: Thick, but pourable mixture of mixed epoxy & flocked cotton.
- Applying to surface:
- Over foam: brush or squeegee on a very thin micro slurry layer. (urethane foam: Use a thick micro slurry layer).
- Over glass: Brush on a coat of epoxy.
- Lay on cloth:
- Pull edges to straighten wrinkles.
- If working alone: Roll the cloth, then unroll it onto the surface.
- Wet Out:
- Don’t slop on excess resin; Bring epoxy up with a vertical stab of the brush (This is stippling)
- Start in center and work out to sides.
- Most of the time in a layup is spent stippling. Stipple resin up from below, or, if required, down from above.
- “Not wet, not white”.
- Squeegee:
- If you have excess epoxy, squeegee it off to the side. Use squeegee with many light passes to move epoxy from wet areas to dry areas.
- Preliminary Contour Fill
- Save sanding by troweling dry micro over low areas while the glass layup is “green”.
- This is done at trailing edges, spar caps, or over any low areas.
- The low places are overfilled with micro, then sanded smooth after full cure.
- Knife Trim:
- Razor-trim the edges at the “green” stage, about 3-4 hours after the layup.
- Alternatively: Wait until a full cure, then use the variable oscillating tool to knife trim.
- General Inspection:
- Look for dry glass, excess epoxy, bubbles, and delamination before walking away from wet layup.
- Cleanup:
- Remove gloves, or rinse ply #9 off with soap and water.
- Epocleanse can also remove epoxy off unprotected skin areas.
- Brushes: Rinse twice with MEK, and wash with soap and water. Throw away after 2-4 uses.
Last updated: 2022-08-26 09:02:41 -0700