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G10 wings DIY

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juandesooka
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G10 wings DIY

Postby juandesooka » Sun Dec 18, 2016 12:28 am

I have stringy wings as my second foil. Really enjoying them, cut through the water with no drag, and quite maneuverable.

My friend who inherited my old carafino is a handy guy and decided he wanted to try DIYing some wings. In looking into options, we realized that the flat G10 wings look to be reasonably straightforward to copy. Cut out shape from a sheet of G10, then lots of grinding and sanding until happy with the shape. A winter project!

I have a couple of sheets, making a copy first. But I am now interested in trying to copy something along the lines of zeeko spitfire, with my fuselage reversed. I figure that would be a fun experiment, may save me a large credit card bill from a late night impulse purchase. :lol:

Curious how many others are DIY'ing G10 wings -- I have seen a few posters mention it. Any tips/tricks? Or lessons learned to help me avoid problems?

A few things I have learned early on in this project:

-- regular jigsaw blades won't cut G10! Grinds off the cutting teeth super quick. A carbide blade worked great. But even better: cutting wheel on a dremel. Cuts easy and fast and more precise than a full size angle grinder. That cuts it too, but way too fast and uncontrolled for my liking.

-- seems to sand ok, lower grit takes it off fairly quick. I have tried an orbital palm sander, just borrowed a belt sander which I suspect will be quite aggressive.

-- a rasp looks to be ideal to remove the material before the sanding fine tuning. Takes it off quick.

-- dremel shaping tool seems to work well for detail work too, both the hard stone one and the metal burrs.

-- I got G10 from Professional Plastics in USA....3/8" thick (10mm), 24" width, will cut length to suit. A lot cheaper from China, but have to buy a lot bigger quantity. 12"x24" was enough to make front and rear wing set.

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Bille
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby Bille » Sun Dec 18, 2016 2:35 pm

juandesooka wrote: ...

My friend who inherited my old carafino is a handy guy and decided he wanted to try DIYing some wings. In looking into options, we realized that the flat G10 wings look to be reasonably straightforward to copy. Cut out shape from a sheet of G10, then lots of grinding and sanding until happy with the shape. A winter project!
...
You ever think about laying up your own DIY G10 ?
You have the option of making a compound di/anhedral table ; and you could use
a Twill woven carbon also for better looks and strength. Alternating carbon and fiberglass
could save even more money ; and placing a color die in the glass will make shaping easier.

You MUST watch your risen/fiber content, by weighing the fibers prior to wetting them
out ; then weighing it after as well. I start with 50%/50% to wet-out easier ; then damp out
the excess with blue shop-towels with toilet paper inside. After many years of doing that
and then placing peal-ply with baby-blanket under the bag ; i can get it about right now
without the aircraft quality vacuum-bagging extra parts.

There are epoxy's, like Aeropoxy + slow hardner, that will harden over-night ; then take 3 months
at 77-F
or 2 hours @ 140-F to completely cure. If you do your shaping before placing the part
in an oven ; the shaping part goes WAY faster because the risen is still soft but fully workable
and the part doesn't need to be supported during the grind job.

Bille

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juandesooka
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby juandesooka » Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:28 pm

Thanks Billie
I don't think I will be doing that yet....
If I had the wherewithal to make g10 I'd probably make bomber carbon wings instead.

It was $75 for enough material for wingset plus shipping and tax..$95 us. Spitfire wings smaller, even cheaper! :-)

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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby NYKiter » Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:55 pm

I use 3/8" thick G10 for wings. I would never make my own...there are hundreds of layers.
But, to each their own. Whats interesting about a hand grind is that the layers become contours allowing you to gauge consistency along the edges.
Its not like asbestos and does not mandate a respirator but I wear one anyhow just in case...smells nasty. I cut it with a table saw grinding wheel...easy as cake.

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Bille
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby Bille » Thu Dec 22, 2016 4:26 am

NYKiter wrote: ... Whats interesting about a hand grind is that the layers become contours allowing you to gauge consistency along the edges.
Its not like asbestos and does not mandate a respirator but I wear one anyhow just in case...smells nasty. I cut it with a table saw grinding wheel...easy as cake.
Dude --- don't say shit like that ; some Dumb-ASS , that's dumber than you , might
actually believe YA !! :nono: Your a fricken Nutcase, for advising people they don't need
a respirator when grinding on G-10 !! :lol:

I'm OK with Ya not wanting to Lay-up your own G-10 ; i done it, and it was a pain .

Bille
Last edited by Bille on Thu Dec 22, 2016 4:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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JakeFarley
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby JakeFarley » Thu Dec 22, 2016 4:40 am

Bille is spot on about wearing a respirator and I will add to that gloves and other protective equipment. With epoxies you can develop a chemical sensitivity that can make you sick for the rest of your life. Better safe than sorry.

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juandesooka
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby juandesooka » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:36 am

Reading about it online, seems it isn't toxic, but you still don't want to inhale a bunch of dust. More or less like fibreglass ... could get away with a dust mask.

And agree....nasty smell when cutting / burning through.

My stringy is blue and shows the layers. The piece I bought is white....can't see the layers, bummer, would make the shaping easier.

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NYKiter
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby NYKiter » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:38 pm

Sorry Billie, Im not advising anything. Im just stating that according to the MSDS does not recommend wearing a respirator.
I think theres some fear about the material that may be unfounded. Certainly glass fibers are not as small as asbestos....so essentially its similar to fiberglass.
Here is an MSDS, check for yourself
http://www.polymerplastics.com/images/m ... s/G_10.pdf

But like I mentioned, I wear one just in case...

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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby RalfsB » Fri Dec 23, 2016 9:00 am

Making wings is not really hard, if you have some experience with fiberglass and epoxy. I have never used a ready-made G10, usually make what I need on my own. The basic steps are as follows: Make a mold (make sure it is somewhat heat-resistant because epoxy heats up quite a bit when curing), cover it with something that does not stick to epoxy. Cut pieces of fiberglass cloth to fill the mold (and a bit more); I like the 200-280 gram cloth; with finer ones there is too much cutting. Mix the epoxy resin and fill the mold with a 'lasagna' of cloth and resin, do not use too much resin but make sure all the cloth is saturated, in the end it should look semitransparent. Put the top part of the mold on (or a cover if the bottom is flat), make sure it does not stick, put on some weights, let the epoxy cure. When it is done, do the necessary cutting if needed (the hand-saw that is used for metal will do), even the surface out with sandpaper, rough in the beginning, fine later. If there are any defects, fill them with some epoxy paste, sand. For smooth finish, cover with a thin layer of epoxy, let it cure, sand with very fine sandpaper. Drill holes, apply paint as needed.

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juandesooka
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Re: G10 wings DIY

Postby juandesooka » Tue Jan 17, 2017 7:29 pm

Rear wing more or less done. I could spend more time sanding out imperfections and polishing it shiny, but think I'll try it first, see if it works. I chickened out on sanding it as thin as the original stringy wing.

Next up is front wing. I am trying to decide whether to carve in small winglets above like on rear wing, or to go with the original which has 15mm winglets screwed in below. I may try out the small ones above, and if poor performance, sand them down and add winglet in phase 2.

Lessons learned:

-- belt sander with 50 grit is the best shaping tool!

-- rasp is good for some uses, but leaves deep grooves, and also gets dulled....this g10 is super hard.

-- face mask / respirator mandatory! Coveralls a good idea.

Looking forward to trying it out.
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