Early Christmas......

1.   After opening bag

2.  Ripping off the breather

3.  pulling the thin perforated film

4.  the best part: peeling the peel ply

5.  showing the uniglass along the leading edge. ( this goes into "tension" when the targa bar is loaded)

6.  Overlapped the tri glass along the trailing edge ( this goes into "compression" when loaded so 6 layers provides a little bulk and creates optimum configuration for compressive forces)

7.  a little trick......use a stapler to keep the glass in place in the wet layup step

8.  placed a couple of 1x2's in the void to help prevent concavity.

I'ts nice when things work out!   

rudder bagel and cream cheese

Had a fun time using my Grandad's old chisels knocking out chunks of cedar to allow the rudder bars to nest into the two cedar core halves.  After carefully measuring the desired location of the rudder shaft, I scribed the outline with a sharpy pen and then performed some free hand skill saw action to cut the lines......holding my mouth just right to judge the depth of cut as I went along. After that, I slathered the rudder halves with a mixture of cabosil, microbaloons and epoxy like a big bagel with cream cheese, bagged it, placed it in my curing oven and let the pump run until morning.

Clothing the final Targa bar piece

Trimming the 24oz. Triaxial glass cloth for the Starboard targa bar upright.

 In the bag.... (note: Vac pressure can crumple just about any object containing an open cavity and since these targa bar uprights have hollow cores with a stringer running lengthwise, I chose to run a small tube into the bag and into the internal void. This allowed me to introduce a controlled amount of atmospheric pressure during the curring phase to prevent creating concavities in the sides of the members. )  

Turned out fine...................