Matt,
Here are a few tricks for cold weather fibre-glassing I gleaned over the
years;
Hot box for the resin is a must if you’re doing layups on a regular basis.
If not, save energy and leave the resin cold. When some is needed,
dispense what you need and stick it in the microwave oven for a few
seconds. Eg, 20CC of resin only needs 6 seconds in the nuclear oven.
As Chris mentioned, a heat gun. I use a heat gun on all layups
regardless of temp. When applying micro, hit the back of the trowel with
the heat gun as you’re spreading.
Peel-ply is your friend. I use is wherever I can. With peel-ply on
you part, you can cover it over with a plastic sheet and not worry about
touching. Now the real trick… cover the plastic with an electric blanket
and then that with an old quilt (for added insulation from the cold)
Build a hot box out of 1” Styrofoam big enough for small parts. Add a
20w to 40w light bulb and a cheap thermostat. A muffin fan doesn’t hurt
either. You can get a thermostat used for electric baseboard heaters
from Home Depot or the like.
Hope that
helps.
Neil in
Toronto
From:
Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Christopher Barber
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 7:33
PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Heating your
Hanger ??
Our hangar has a heater that
actually does a pretty good job of warming it up a bit. Several degrees
anyway with all the doors closed. I used a heat gun last week to lay
micro and it worked very well.
When I was still in my garage, I
made heat tents to let the layup cure. I would drape a thick plastic
sheet over the layup with stand-offs to prevent it from laying on the part and
would put a small electrical heater with a blower on one end of the
tent. This worked very well for me. I remember specifically for my
canard and elevators.
Even a heat gun will really make a
difference during the lay ups if you want to work in the cold, which I
did. You will have to wait longer for cure. When hot, I have never
not had a cured to the touch when coming in the next day, however, when cold a
layup may still be tacky upon my return several hours later the next
day.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday,
December 05, 2008 5:30 PM
Subject: Heating
your Hanger ??
Hope you are doing
well and just wanted to let you know that I am enjoying the meetings and
hope to get more involved with the
chapter.
But the real reason
for my email is to ask what you two do to heat you hanger when its to
cold for glass work?
My right inside
fuse layup went ok with temps just above 70, but the left side is filled
with voids after cure when the temps were just over 60 and then it dipped
into the 70's during the night.
I have just
finished a heat box to keep my epoxy warm between work sessions, but need
some way to get a two car garage to about 75 degrees to get any work done
during the winter.