Oratex is like Yoga Pants

[BDA]

Ken I agree
2 thin coats, did you have any brush marks show through fabric?
On the hard flat surfaces?

[BucF16]

Have you talked to Lars about the issue?

My Oratex shows up Friday.

Thanks Bruce

[kenryan]

Ken I agree
2 thin coats, did you have any brush marks show through fabric?
On the hard flat surfaces?

Certainly nothing that bothers me. I am 100% happy with the way it looks.

[BDA]

Yes, I spoke with Lars, its 100% operator error, i was in a hurry and got a little too much on the door frame, and didnt notice it until I shrunk the fabric.

[BucF16]

Roger That! Thanks for the updates

[bluemax]

Have you talked to Lars about the issue?

My Oratex shows up Friday.

Thanks Bruce

Bruce,
Give me a holler when you are ready to start recovering. I will come over and give you a hand.

[AV8R Paul]

I cannot stress enough not to use too much glue.
If you can see brush marks in the glue when dry, it is too much and will show through the fabric. Better to wash it off and do it again. It takes so little glue.

When joining a seam, make the glue at the overlap wider than the overlap fabric so that the edge has glue to stick to. The finish tape will hide it.

Before finish tape, run masking tape along the top piece of the overlap.so that a narrow glue line along the seam on the "lower" side will hide the seam under the finish tape. The masking tape keeps the glue off the upper piece.

Oh, when wrapping fabric around a tube use the iron, the heat gun will distort the fabric and cause wrinkles that are impossible to fix.

Make your penetration "dollar" patches ahead of time from finish tape, not fabric. The fabric needs glue that is hard to hide at the edges, tapes need no glue.

I’ll have to pass this on to Chris Wallen.

[BDA]

Dont get me wrong - I stll like the Oratex and would use it again.

I am just posting my mistakes so others dont have to deal with the same problems. I would have ended up with a better looking finished product if I had known this stuff.

[BDA]

Going around the door required making a cut and seam at the longeron below the door.

This is somewhat tricky to get the glue in the right spot on the fabric.

Have to pull the side straight and clamp with it in one position to mark for glue line, then take loose and pull the bottom surface straight to mark for glue line. Make sure to check overlaps to make sure you have enough wrap - before you cut.

[BDA]

Finish tapes on the fuselage this week

More learning curve
Tapes make up for a multitude of sins! They look really good. Well, better.

But

The tape on the top to the vert transition was more than difficult. Not happy with how it turned out.
I could not stretch it enough to go around the corner and lay down flat, had to cut it in the middle and overlap. This is a 2 or 3 person operation. If there is a way to do this in one piece I would pay to see it done - I am not sure its possible.

I was using 115* C on the iron to bond the tapes, worked very well except if I stayed in one place, then the tape shrunk just enough to leave a little glue mark at the edge.

I should mention that if you are not careful how the fabric wraps around the tubes it is not a flat and smooth transition when you are done and the tape must glue down in the depression that is left or there will be an air bubble, so the depression cant be “covered” by the tape. The tape must be ironed down into the depression.
Air bubbles are a real problem, you have to iron from the center out as much as possible, i did have a couple I couldnt work out and had to poke with razor blade then iron.

Lars told me to put a narrow line of glue next to the overlap seam before covering with finish tape - I would not do that again. Too hard to keep it from showing thru the tape. If I had gotten the tape on sooner maybe the iron would have knocked down the glue line, but it didnt and looks bad.

Before the tapes I had a few wrinkles that I knocked off with a dremmel with sander drum, also worked well on the high spots on the overlap.

The finish tapes stick REALLY WELL. The only time I had trouble is when I overheated with heat gun. The iron is the best way by far for the tapes, when The iron wouldnt fit or surface was uneven I turned the gun down untill it wouldnt shrink the tape and used the felt blade.

[BDA]

Pics
You can see where the tape got skinny when I tried to stretch it around the corner, you can also see the depression where I really had to work to get it to stick after that.
The wrinkles were easy to shrink out.

All in all the tapes are very forgiving, and finish out nice if not abused.

[AV8R Paul]

BDA, how is your SuperSTOL coming along?

[BucF16]

Hey BDA, Did you rib stick your Stabilizers/, Elevator/Rudder/

Thank you in advance

Bruce

[BDA]

I have been on the North Slope for almost a month, so not much airplane work lately.

I did not ribstitch my vert, We shall see how well that Oratex sticks. I will put some on the horizontal.

Back home in a few days then I will hang the Titan engine.

[BDA]

Last pic before engine goes on
I have shrunk the fabric per instructions but the largest section on the side does not seem as tight as the others. It is tight, just not as tight as the small sections.

will roll it outside overnight and let the frame get cold (below zero) then shrink again.