More progress on first float half

Categories: Bulkheads Floats

Was able to do a few more tasks on the first float half today. Spent some time cleaning up the edges from last night’s big lamination job. Went back and added 3″ of fabric on the deck-flange joint and then went to work finishing up the foam for the stringer. Once we got the shape and dimensions of the stringer right, I bedded it down with thickened epoxy. Placed the uni-directional fabric on it, wet out, then added the BD fabric over it, wet out. Process took what seemed like forever — each time you pull some resin out, a bubble would develop on the slope of the stringer. Eventually we got it worked out (fingers crossed). 🙂

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Also placed the first bulkhead in place, made a fillet of thickened epoxy and then taped while everything was still wet. The DBM1208 is much easier to handle than just 12 BD (that stuff starts to shred at the edges when you work it), but it soaks up a TON of resin in the CSM backing.

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Last bulkhead laid-up tonight. Should be able to finish installing bulkheads next time (unsure about working on things over the Thanksgiving holiday) – then this half gets popped out and the process gets repeated 3 more times.

Not too many pictures today – hands in epoxy almost all day.

Time Spent: 6 hours