Lindy
11/24/2006
Happy day after Thanksgiving to all!
Today I worked on getting the piano hinge riveted to the wingtip. I started by drilling an additional hole between each rivet hole so that I could make "flox rivets" later on...you'll see what I mean...I drilled these to #21
After that, I deburred all of the holes and roughed up the glass side of the hinge so the epoxy has a better grip on the metal. The rivet holes in the wingtips needed to be countersunk, so I did that. And then I prepped the epoxy stuff, and mixed it up. I'm using the West Systems epoxy, available at Boat US or Aircraft Spruce.
I spread a very thin layer of epoxy on both the wingtip and the hinge half, and then before putting them together, I spread another very thin layer of flox on the wingtip side. For those that don't know what flox is (as I didn't until a couple of weeks ago), it's flocked cotton fibers. It's a very fine fiber that is used to thicken up the epoxy. Here's the flox before being mixed in.
Here's the hinge cleco'd in place with the epoxy setting up.
From what I hear, it's much easier (though a little messier) to rivet the hinge before the epoxy cures. So, I did that, and then used the flox to make "flox rivets" where I drilled those #21 holes. Essentially just dabbing some flox to cover the hole.
I then repeated all of that for the other side, and they are now setting up. They should cure within 12 hours.
4.0 hours