CARBON FIBER & GLASSING
This Page to be "CONTINUED".
****New Pictures Posted 11/28/02!  Happy Thanksgiving!****
****See New Pictures Below Posted 11/28/02, Happy Thanksgiving!****
Carbon Fiber is wetted out on a plastic sheet, then
placed on foam/microed stub wing, then rolled with a
grooved hard plastic"layup" roller, then squeegeed.
After removing excess resin with squeegee, surface is then "foam" rolled.  Though its hard to tell from the pictures, microed surface is very even!
Carbon pieces must overlap two inches! Don't work with too big a piece!  Stay in your comfort zone.  I used MGS resin with their "slow" hardener. Excellent!  
I let each piece cure and sand next microed section before I apply the next piece!  Use denatured alcohol to "clean" the surface before applying the next piece!
Slowly but surely your aircraft gets covered!
Carbon Fiber will go around curves nicely if wetted out and rolled properly!
Stub wing has bidiretional cloth.  Next, unidirectional carbon fiber cloth will be layed on entire wing.
Fuselage is  carboned. time to work on the wing gap!
A better view at this point!
Right side view.  It is a lot of work, but it goes quickly! Do not rush it!  Patience is a virtue!
Note the manual crank inspection "cutout".  Lined with lite ply wood after shaping foam!
Another view.
It's right about now that I decide to forget all about that new Continental engine...too expensive!  I will stick with my overhauled Lycoming 290!
Note Firewall "holes" are filled and firewall is covered in carbon fiber.  Later a layer of bidirectional glass, and then  a layer of ceramic cloth will be applied!
Some times....no comment is necessary.
Though carbon fibered, the final layer of glass will not
be applied until the outer wing panels wings are covered.
Never sand the dried microed surface  with anything finer than 80 grit sand paper. Doing so may prevent a solid bond with the carbon fiber.  No air bubbles!
I think its starting to look like a 190!
I am getting ready to do something, don't ask me what!
A left side profile shot
Wing gap is filled with foam and the microed!  Do not get the micro on the layed up carbon fiber!
Fuselage covered in carbon fiber is lightly sanded with 80 grit.
Getting ready to cover the "entire" wing, (including the stub wing), with 4.7 unidirectional carbon fiber cloth.
Fuselage and stub wing have been covered in 8.9 oz bidirectional carbon fiber cloth at this point.
This view shows how acurate I cut the wing ribs.  Note the smooth joint.  Outer wing panel mates up with the stub wing perfectly!  I must be doing something right!
Excess micro has to be sanded down without sanding to the cloth! I must be doing something wrong!
This is what the joint should look like after sanding, prior to laying the unidirectional carbon fiber.  Note the "line of demarcation"!
Keep working on it!
FW 190 is ready to have the uni-directional carbon fiber applied!
Unidirectional carbon fiber is applied the same as the bidirectional, except you only roll the lay-up roller in the direction of the carbon fiber!
By rolling the unidirectional cloth in the direction of the carbonfibers, you do not "distort" the weave and the cloth stays strong!
An even surface, prior to laying up the carbon fiber gives you an even surface after the lay-up.
Now the outer wing and stub wing are covered in a layer of  Rutan 7 oz. uni-directional fiberglass cloth!
The fuselage "only!" is then covered in 9.8 oz bidirection cloth which overlaps 2 " of the stub wing's unidirectional cloth at the begining of the stubwing.
Over-zealous author!
Now the "bottom has to be done!  get a rotator stand and flip it over! All wheelwell and flap well pre-finishing work is done at this time.  I also tested the gear again in the inverted position...you never know!
Note the flap-well prefinishing work. Flap torque rod inspection port is completed.  Also "bottom" wing gap is foamed and microed.  Again lite ply is used to line the inspection and "gap" ports.  When you cut the wing seam, you cut right through the plywood!
Flap well is carboned with unidirectional first.  After it is trimmed and cured, (Trimming carbon fiber, unlike fiberglass, is best done after curing!) Bottom of the entire wing, panel and stub wing, is then covered in 5.7 oz. unidirectional carbon fiber.
Note that to this point, fuselage and the part of the stub wing even with the end of the flap, has been covered in bidirectional 8.9 oz carbon fiber cloth.
I cannot emphasize enough, that an "even" microed surface yeilds an "even" carboned surface!  Never sand with anything smoother than 80 grit at this point!
Another picture showing how nice the outer wing panel meets the stubwing. Note the top unidiectional cabon cloth has been staggered and actually is not completely coverd by the top unidirectional glass?  This will allow you to join cabon cloth to carbon cloth. The last bottom layer of unidirectional fiberglass cloth will the "wrap" around the "top" of the wing so it overlaps the top wings Undirectional fiberglss cloth by 2"!!!  This makes a strong covering that will not delaminate very easily!
Once in a great while, I even impress myself! 

Note,  I covered each wing in one big piece of carbon fiber cloth.  After that cured, was trimmed, sanded, and rubbed down with denatured alchol,  I covered each wing with one big piece of unidirectional fiber glass cloth.  I had some help!  That brings up another point...don't be afraid to ask for help!!!!
A nice view of the bottom of the right wing prior to laying up the unidirectional carbon fiber cloth.  Note the evenness of the wing seam.  The microed wing may not look even,  but a stiff long metal angle iron shoed it to be nearly perfect.  The beauty of "block sanding" the micro prior to covering, creates a lighter airplane! Some people, the old excepted way, do not allow the micro to cure before laying up the cloth.  This practice has been found to eventually cause delamination when covering with carbon fiber.  It also cause the surface to be more uneven which means more "Filler" in the end.  That causes the airplane to be heavy!  On this wing most of the micro is sanded off!  A more involved process that yiels a better finish!
Note how nice the unidirectional carbon fiber went on. An almost perfectly even wing.  At this point it has also been covered with 7 oz unidirectional glass.  Note it still remains "black" in coler because glass lays on transparent when wet and cured!   Also, not my rotation stands.  This item costs about $1000.00 U.S. dollars but saves hundreds of hours of work!  Anyboy interested in a set of these, please contact me!
Website Copyright February 15, 2003 by George Dawe