Basic Layup Procedure

  1. 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.
  2. Cloth Cutting: Use the electric scissors.
  • Unless otherwise specified, cut at 45° to the fibers.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. Lay on cloth:
  • Pull edges to straighten wrinkles.
  • If working alone: Roll the cloth, then unroll it onto the surface.
  1. 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”.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. General Inspection:
  • Look for dry glass, excess epoxy, bubbles, and delamination before walking away from wet layup.
  1. 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