" Resin Swirl " FINS ....

Or maybe rice paper so you get a semi-transparent effect?

(Fin photos tonight Chip, finished shaping the paddle a few hours ago)

It's hard to tell from the pictures but... did you have a different swirl pattern every 3-5 layers (different cup)?

I think that is going to look totally sweet after you foil and gloss it.

Chip, I'm currently experimenting a new technique: dropping the different colors here and there then using the air gun to blow the resin in random paths.

First try was actually a disaster: I forgot to lower the air pressure (it was set at maximum pressure) and coloured resin exploded all over the shop... But I learnt from that and with low pressure you get to obtain various spider-like effects. I'm gonna try and have a flat air-outing set on my air-gun instead of the small round hole and see what can be achieved.

I can't see them either

cecil

Hey Kai

I put 4 layers of 5oz? down dry and drizzled it on in dots, three different colours, sort of filling an area with dots of colour and filling dry areas with different colours.



Put another 4 layers down and repeated the process until the thickness was right.



Then I weighed it down with a brick, squashing everything together.



Epoxy likes to run trough cloth as it takes a long time to set....what you are looking at is the bottom of the panel after everything has seeped through...



Hope that explains it better....

With my melamine board I lay down the tape, wax it (just one layer), then start my layup. Brush some resin down first so that wax doesn't get on the first layer of glass.

When I'm done the tape allows me to get a putty knife under the sheet, then it's just a matter of waiting for air to get under to let the panel come up. No sticking problem even with the texture of the melamine.

Maybe it's because you guys use glass which has such a perfect surface, also you guys use a sheet of glass as big as your panel right? Not much, much bigger like my board.

I was at the plastic store the other day and got to talking with the manager. He said he had had a rocket builder use 2 sheets of polycarbonate to sandwich his fin panels in to get them absolutely straight and to squish all the excess resin out. To squeeze the resin he at first used his truck... Just drove the truck up onto the sandwich. Later he got high tech and used an anvil.

Anyways, I think the polycarbonate is probably the best idea since if your panel gets stuck to it you can always bend the poly till the panel comes loose.

Roughly cut out......




Roughly foiled

'ratso'? how does that work ben?

anyway, looking forward to seeing the canards nice & shiny & polished. good work mate.

reckon as a thruster setup you will find them less drivey than regular longer raked thruster fins. & less hold too i imagine. i look forward to a performance report.

The 'clanards' are brilliant.

Chip, your foiling is getting very good.

Looks fun.

I needed to thicken the fin up to fit a box so I tried something different again.....




5 layers of 4oz for each side, sandwiched between thick pvc plastic and 2 pieces of packing foam.



Pour on the epoxy, let it wet out and then apply some weight to squash it all together....



Then wait 24 hours........

the erie light in the las photo is a point of departure.

and upon returning from the new solar system
Entwhistle Ambergris
Admiral of starfleet comands flag ship
THE BEOWOLF
a fine craft by the way'
an aboriginal plastic composite
artifact was collected
whilst the artisan was sleeping
bemused
pictured hereon pages
with exotic fruits and
vegetables.

Intergalactic Journal of Interstellar Touring
12 14 27 39 betelgeuse 4
left archbacker
...ambrose...

If and when I do another fin panel I'm definatley using epoxy + PVC pressure plates. The way epoxy wets out the cloth is easier than the poly I think.

BTW, did I mention that the guy at the plastics store thought the bubbles in my panels was caused by too much catalyst? I really squirt it in there when I actually only need a few drops for the few oz in a dixie cup.

Thanks to Chip's amazing patience, the glass is now off the panel......

This episode's presenter is Ainslie.....



Cutting it out