More Cowl. Cowl mold.

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On Saturday I swapped labor with my friend Michelle. She needed a new Radiator installed in her Subaru, I needed help doing the lay up on the cowl mold. Michelle used to work for me at Triumph Vought. I was her lead engineer on the Embraer 190.195/175 Rudder and Elevator Program. We both were the first two people assigned to that program. We spent quite a few months together in San Jose Dos Compos Brazil. The home of Embraer and Santos Dumont, the early Brazilian aviation pioneer. Michelle and I did all of the preliminary design and lay out of these control surfaces. I met Michelle when we were both studying to get our Pilots license. I am quite satisfied with my private Pilots license, but Michelle had a much higher calling than me. She wants to be a Mission Pilot for MAF or JAARS. In order to do this she needs a commercial pilots license and an A&P license. She needs tail dragger time and about 500 hours. So at my suggestion she bought a damaged 1946 Taylorcraft and has been working this past year on its restoration. Michelle is one ambitious woman!!

Michelle

This is right at the start of the cowl lay up. We had just finished swapping out her radiator. It was over 100 degrees on Saturday so we started early so we could be in the shade of the shop.


















The tool had been previously prepped for the Gel coat with a coat of Partall 10 PVA release agent. This is a water soluble release agent, and like I have mentioned before, I have never had a part stick when I used PVA

ready for mixing

Michelle's main task was to keep me supplied with mixed resin. Because of the heat, I cannot mix a large batch. It would quickly go into an exothermic reaction and turn to jelly. The mold required 4 28 oz. cups of resin and one 28 oz. cup of gel coat. Gel coat is polyester resin mixed with Calcium Sulfate. This creates a thixotropic mixture that has superior surface hardness. I have a special gun that is designed to shoot gel coat.

shooting Gel Coat

here you can see me and the gel coat gun. I have a fan blowing all the overspray out the main door. the idea here is to get an even but thick coat. Its not too critical if the gel coat starts to run, the surface of the tool is already covered.

initial layer

Once the Gel Coat started to tack off to the point it was about 3/4 cured, I wiped a Bondo filler radius all along the corner between the master and the header board. The following layers of mat and fiberglass cannot lay up into a sharp inside corner. This step is required to ensure that the gel coat has adequate support and will not crack. The first layer down on the fresh gel coat was a five 1.5 oz. layer of cloth. I cut a yard of cloth up into small 6" x 6" squares so they would be easier to handle. I like to use a ply of thin fiberglass against a gel coat surface. this again ensures that the gel coat surface is being supported. After the initial layer is added, I follow up with fiberglass mat. The mat has been held together with a starch binder, before you can move the fibers around, the mat needs to be wetted out. I like to have resin on the surface that will draw up into the mat, but I usually brush on additional and let it absorb the resin. once its wetted out, the mat is rolled with lay up roller to move the fiber and eliminate air bubbles. The rollers work very well.

Finished

I added 3 layers in total. It only takes about 2 hours before the tool is completely cured. I have modified my plan slightly. I was going to release this mold and then move the boards 3 inches to the opposite side, but when I tried to release the tool, the master started to crack on the good side. rather than risk any damage to the master, I have decided to lay up the next tool to abut this one.

opposite side ready to go

I removed the tooling boards and shot the surface with PVA. Its all ready to go. I need to get a helper to do this side. I will update the Blog when I finish the other side.