From: RWolf99@aol.com
Message-ID: <b1.21842fd.2723c335@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 00:12:37 EDT
Subject: LNC2 Canopy Unidirectional Graphite
To: lancair.list@olsusa.com
Reply-To: lancair.list@olsusa.com
Mime-Version: 1.0

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Well, I've just finished the unidirectional graphite reinforcement for my 
forward hinge canopy.  A real pain-in-the-butt, but not as bad as I thought 
it would be.  A few comments to pass on to those who aren't there yet.

1)  Uni graphite is different to work with than fiberglass.  It's shiny and 
black when dry, then it's shiny and black when wet.  You don't get the 
transparency effect that fiberglass gives you when it wets out.

2)  Doing the layup on a piece of plastic, trimming to final size, and then 
plopping on the airplane (like I do with glass) didn't work, at least not for 
me.  The graphite got all balled up and I had to throw it away.

3)  Neither did wetting out the graphite on its plastic backing, and then 
plopping it on the airplane.  (The graphite comes applied to a peel-away 
plastic backing, like a band-aid only not very sticky.)

4)  What worked for me was to cut the dry graphite to final size (scissors or 
pizza roller work well), brush epoxy on the plane, plop the dry fiber onto 
the epoxy, peel off the plastic backing, brush more epoxy on the fiber, plop 
on the next layer and repeat.  Every few layers you squeegee off the excess 
resin.  You could even squeegee after every lay if you wanted to.  Have ALL 
the fiber cut to size before you mix epoxy.

5)  I couldn't get the graphite to follow that nicely drawn curve in the 
manual, so I approximated it with straight line segments with some overlap.  
Maybe if I had cut the crosswise pieces of fishing line it would have made 
the turn.  (This will make more sense when you have the graphite in front of 
you.)

6)  Use the long working life hardener, and do it in stages.  Work from one 
side to the other, and realize that you can still lay up fresh epoxy onto 
tacky epoxy.  I did the work in three segments.  After cutting away the 
factory stiffener, the first session was the inner plies of graphite which I 
let cure (that's the plies under the foam, not the ones towards the center of 
the airplane).  In the second session I microed the foam stiffener over cured 
graphite, and in the third session I put on the outer plies of graphite.  
Doing all the layups of one session (either the inner plies or the outer 
plies) takes about 90 minutes, so if it is closer to 70 degrees than 95 
degrees you're better off.  That's why you want to start on one side and work 
towards the other, since you can finish the last layups on one side in about 
60 minutes while working your way around.

7)  It would have been easier to put the phenolic blocks into the side rails 
after all the graphite was on.  Or better yet, glue it in first without the 
gas strut ball, put all that graphite over the phenolic blocks, and then 
drill/tap/hysol the gas strut ball in place after all the graphite is on.

8)  Last, and most important, don't buy only 80 feet of fiber.  Buy 90 feet.  
80 feet goes on the airplane and the other ten feet wind up in the trash can.

Best of luck to you.  

- Rob Wolf
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