fiberglass vacuumbaged cowl long style

[harpo]

Re: fiberglass vacuumbaged cowl long style

Bill : going to put lines in the cowl plug to simulate where the cowl is hinged , split top and bottom and also where the nose bowl attaches so whom ever wants to do whatever, the lines will be there in the origanal places. I know that the cowl will fit at the firewall , I took great care in knowing that it had to be dead nuts at that point !!!, also the fitting of the univar grills , and the centerline of the crank shaft. Going to make a unit soon and will keep every one posted , I do have pictures , can I load them on this forum ?? Thanks for your input , every little bit helps . HARPO

[VictorBravo]

Re: fiberglass vacuumbaged cowl long style

Hank, yes that is what I meant... the whole cowl comes off in two upper/lower pieces from the firewall to the crankshaft hole. Your brain still works just fine... for a Taylorcraft owner that is

Harpo, wherever you want to put the simulated cut lines is fine. However what I was assuming is that one of the cowl pieces would have a molded in offset overlap flange, where you would put the nutplates. If you were planning to NOT mold in this offset flange (and manually put in a metal "backing plate" style flange later) then it doesn't matter.

All I'm saying is that the existing T-craft cowl is difficult to live with because you have to take the propeller off many more times than you should have to. It affects how well people inspect their airplane during maintenance or annuals, and it gets in the way of doing a lot of things. I am going to try to split my metal nose bowl and get an STC or whatever for it. If you are making a cowl mold, and the cowlings that come out of that mold will have to be individually field approved by the owners ANYWAY, I would strongly suggest that you build this improvement into the molds.

Bill

[astjp2]

Re: fiberglass vacuumbaged cowl long style

Harpo, make sure that nothing carbon touches anything aluminum! If it does, you will not have any aluminum left after a couple of humid days and about 6 months. I usually put 1 layer of glass as the outer layer over the carbon to protect anything. Which resin are you using? I perfer west systems because that is what I learned with. If you get a good mold that can hold up to 400 degree temps, you might consider using a prepreg, not as much mess and it makes a great product. Tim

[VictorBravo]

Re: fiberglass vacuumbaged cowl long style

Good idea about the carbon and aluminum. Yes West is very easy to work with but I think the temperature rating may be inappropriate for a cowling? They have a spec somewhere.

Although it is a pain in the butt, one layer of Kevlar on the very inside of everything will alleviate the corrosion issue AS WELL as making it quieter, AND gives you one last super-tough layer in case something tries to shatter the carbon. Yeah, I know the Kevlar is hard to work with comparatively, but a fail-safe layer and the quietness may be worth it.

Bill