February 20, 2015 - Glue Lower Plates to Spars
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| The next step was to glue the bottom plates to the spars. Before I could do that, I had to make sure the spacer top and bottom edges were level with the ladder tops and bottoms. This required a little sanding in some spots, because despite my best efforts, they were not perfectly level after glueing. |
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Next, I set the spars on top of the plates, and drew an outline with a pencil. I did this for both the bottom and top plates. The lines let me know where the epoxy gets applied.
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| Close-up of the pencil lines. |
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OK, here we go. Ready to epoxy. As you should know by now, epoxy has to be applied to both surfaces being glued together. The bottom plate is on the spar table. I put the spar on itself on my roller stands, instead of the floor, to save my back. Then I applied T-88 epoxy to both the spar ladder and the plate. This took awhile but I got faster at it as I refined my technique. Mainly, using a popsicle stick, I apply a line of epoxy gobs to the surface. Then I use a small strip of flexible plastic -- cut from an old credit card -- to quickly and evenly spread the epoxy on the surface.
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| Once the epoxy application was complete, Lynnette helped me flip the spar over onto the plate laying on the spar table. Then I screwed down all the spar table clamps. The entire process for one spar took about two and a half hours. |
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| Now let sit for 24 hours. |
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| A few days later, I repeat the entire process on the center spar. |
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It went a little faster because I improved my technique.
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| Closeup of the spar and bottom plate. You can see a line of epoxy glistening at lower left. |
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From another angle.
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| A few nights later, all three spars with bottom plates attached. The top plates are to the right. Among other things, I will need to varnish the inside of the spars before glueing on the top plates. |
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| It's been a hard winter in Maryland this year. I'm glad to have the Triplane project because there wouldn't be much else to do otherwise. |
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