March 5, 2017

Laminating the Aft Outer Stem

The Aft Inner Stem seemed to turn out well.  I will have to run it through the surface planer to bring the overall width down to the proper dimension, but I purposely oversized it so that I could do that.

 

I placed the completed Inner Stem back in the form and then proceeded to epoxy the strips for the Outer Stem.  It took 3 batches of epoxy to cover all of the 15 strips.  I then wrapped them in plastic so that they did not become part of the form and clamped them in place.  After adjusting all of the clamps to provide just enough pressure to hold them securely together I cut the excess plastic off of the top and then cleaned up all of the squeeze out.  Placed five 100 watt fixtures to assist in keeping them warm so that they cured properly.

 

One thing I did different on the Outer Stem was to use 405 Filleting Blend instead of the 406 Colloidal Silica that I used on the Inner Stem.  The Colloidal Silica dries white where the 405 Filleting Blend dries somewhat wood colored.  I doubt it will make any difference in how it bonds.

I will let everything cure for a couple of days and then begin the same process with the forward stems.