Mould Modification

Instinct F5J.  Well we had a short holt on the production of gliders to modify the moulds which has taken a lot longer than ever anticipated, but we are now in a position where we can continue.....thank the good lord :-)

The issue was that the moulds had a trough in front of the leading edge which was supposed to aid with trimming the excess cloth to size before joining together, also acting as a void for any excess resin and joining paste to go without affecting the surface finish.  The problem came when the cloth under the pressure of the vacuum was being stretched between the trough and the compound curve of the leading edge shape, this showed where the cloth could not be forced into the leading edge curve and not touching the surface of the mould, this can be seen on the finished product as air bubbles.

The only fix was to fill the leading troughs on all of the moulds, this took about 1kg of resin and 2 hours of prep work, 4 hours of filling followed by 3 days of curing and a massive 16 hours of sanding.  The results are great and this will be reflected in the new finished moulded products, the first new tailplane will be laid up this weekend with the hope that we can start production of the wings the following weekend.

Hopefully we are now back on track.................