HP-24 Project
Update 10 September 2003: Spindle gots legs!
The following sketch shows where I am with the aft fuselage plug:
You can see that I have added legs to the spindle to support it when we do the vacuum bagging. I've also epoxied the adapter joints.
Tonight, I'm going back to the garage and cutting out the various components of the layup:
- The mylar surface sheet (this time I'm using .014" instead of the earlier .005"; trying to improve the surface finish)
- The 3 plies of 7533 cloth per side
- The 1 ply of 108 veil cloth per side
- The polyethelene wet-out surface
- The nylon vacuum bag enclosure
One thing that wanted to do yesterday was relieve the aft core sections for the T adapter on the spindle extension. But when I actually went to do this job, I discovered that the inside radius of the parts was already too big. Instead of having an inside diameter of 1.32", they have an inside radius of 1.32" yielding an inside diameter of 2.64". So the core doesn't fit the water pipe snugly as intended. However, that does make it easier to clear the T-fitting. The CNC foam guy will make me a couple of 1.32"-to-2.64" adapters, and all will be well.
One other thing I did for a while is play around with finding the correct zero-incidence angle for the vertical fin. I found that with the shucks taped onto the vertical fin plug, I could fairly easily sight down the outside surfaces of the shucks and get the correct incidence within about 1/8 of a degree. I figure that's within the "fuzz band" of our established tolerances.
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