| Jabiru J400 Builder
Log - May 2006
5/31/2006 7:46pm-12:05am
1) another thing about this paint is that it's a pain to mix...
but i guess all polyurethane paints probably are since you need
to get the viscosity correct...18-20sec in this case...
2) another thing...i have two sets of instructions...however the
instructions that came with it say that i should put all the paint
down in 4 coats... it seems a bit tricky to do so... it's kind of
a lot of paint to do this without running...it seems that the first
2 parts i painted have extremely good finish and was done in about
6 coats...the first 4 or 5 in quite thin coats... the second set
of instructions says i can lay down more coats if needed... hmmm...
3) it seems i've screwed up a lot of parts including all the doors...
i think i might be having a ventilation issue that is preventing
the parts from drying quickly... so what is happening is that i'm
waiting a long time between coats... this is causing the paint in
the gun to dry at the tip somewhere...and that clogs the tip area
and provides poor paint injection...it sort of dribbles out and
around the nozzle instead into the air stream ... so it drips on
the parts..sort of splatter... so it's back to the drawing board
unfortunately...i have to solve this ventilation issue first i presume
so that i need not wait so long in between coats... btw, the hair
drier died today coincidentally..it was really clogged...and this
lack of ventilation is causing this...real bummer...
4) i decided to put this little thermometer/hygrometer in the tent..
69% humidity...definitely not good...it does seem that this is the
case...it might be ok for other type of paints but waterborne i
think definitely will choke with this... real bummer...i guess i'll
leave it at this and go home... i'll have to resand these parts
when they are dry... and i though i was done sanding :(
5/30/2006 7:39pm-2am
1) inspected the parts from yesterday... the last bit of parts got
some snot looking stuff on it at the end of paint...it looks like
it was this stringy stuff which is probably the polyurethane starting
to gel...kind of a bummer...i might not care..it's not terrible
terrible but it's not perfect like the top strut fairings...
2) one thing to note is that this AFS topcoat almost smells like
candy or some sort of kid plastic... it's something i've smelled
before..it's really quite pleasant unlike the primer..the primer
has this isopropyl alchohol smell that kills the mask filter in
about 2 sessions... i've gone through several mask filters already...and
it gives you a killer headache if you don't replace it... the primer
is kind of nasty and a forced air respirator might not be a bad
idea if you paint a lot as you'll end up saving money on the filters
that run about $20 to replace
3) another thing to note is that this topcoat takes a lot longer
to dry in between coats to tacky... thus i messed up a few parts
with some runs but they werent terrible... i was able to fix with
a few more coats
5/29/2006 5:30-9pm
1) spray painted the first topcoats on the top and bottom strut
fairings and tail covers...tricky stuff but i think the trick is
to get a last coat that smoothens nicely like a mirror
5/28/2006 10:50pm-3am
1) moved the recently primed parts such as wings, struts and fuselage
out of the tent for primer sanding
2) sanded all the parts above...the 1qt extra sent recently is darker
than the initial primer... when i spoke to Dan at AFS i mentioned
that the primer was darker than the swatch of 'smoke grey' so he
said he'll send it a bit darker but maybe i should have not mentioned
anything because he sent something way darker than the initial....
hmmm... hope it's not a problem
5/27/2006 9-2:15am
1) primed all the squeegied parts such as the wings and remaining
fixed spots on fuselage and doors...hopefully this will be the last
day of priming
5/24/2006 5-11:02pm
1) sanded all the remaining parts with 400 grit...only the fuselage
is left..probably will fix a few minor spots with micro on the fuselage
and then prime a bit more
5/22/2006 4-9:18pm
1) sanded the wings and a the rear door with 400 grit ... not sure
that epoxy over the primer on the wings was a good idea... the primer
gets a lot lighter after sanding but the epoxy is in the way so
there's dark spots...mmmm... i guess more primer might fix it...
also..after a lot of sanding on some places without primer, it seems
that it is quite possible that i might not need epoxy squeegies
everywhere... although i got to say that the squeegied epoxy gives
a very smooth surface... i might just take the easy and quick way
out though... it's not a show aircraft
5/21/2006 6-10:04pm
1) squeegied epoxy on the micro sections of the wings and 2 doors......
not sure if it was a good or bad idea but i don't know how else
to fill in the porous micro...not sure if i'll have to reprime either...kind
of a bummer if i do need to reprime
5/20/2006 6pm-12:02am
1) primed the fuselage...ran short on the primer so i concentrated
on the micro'd areas to even the color... i think that squeegy epoxy
on the micro'd spots and pin holes is going to be necessary...but
looks good overall
5/18/2006 4:22pm-1:30am
1) so i received the AFS top coats in the mail today along with
my N numbers and a few other stickers... the top coats sound tricky...
we'll have to see how that goes... my biggest concern is that the
micro is highly porous and even after the primer you can still see
different shades... maybe it'll smoothen out when sanding but i
got a feeling that it might not... so i might spray the struts first
and a small micro'd fiberglass part to see what it looks like...
if it doesn't do the trick, i might have to squeege epoxy over the
micro'd areas before sanding
2) another thing about painting is that the priming doesn't make
the surface completely even...am i not priming enough? i do wonder
if this will be a problem..i don't really want to add lots of weight
in paint... i am building for performance and not show quality..
i guess we'll see
3) i primed the doors and the spinner's back flange since that's
partially exposed
4) finished taping the fuselage with tricia and stuck it back in
the tent with some improvements
5/17/2006 4:34pm-11:04pm
1) cleaned the wings with laquer thinner as i do with all parts
before painting
2) primed the wings with AFS ekoprimer
3) tricia taped up the fuselage for painting...or partially at least
5/16/2006 4-12:45am
1) prefit the spinner onto the flanges...the spinner wasn't quite
cut out properly for the sensenich prop the dealer sent me so it
took a lot of tweaking and fitting the flanges so that everything
fit properly...used a heat gun on the rear flange as it didn't fit
too well... also had to use a unibit to enlarge the holes on the
rear flange to 5/8 so that the prop guides fit through... riveted
anchor nuts to the flanges as necessary and counter sunk for counter
sunk washers
2) made another table out of the wood crate to hold painted parts
3) moved the primed parts out of the tent
4) moved the wings into the spray tent
5) sanded the rear spinner flange for painting...didn't realize
i needed to do this till now
5/15/2006 3pm-11:30pm
1) spray painted the flaps... got a little woozie... so i went and
bought a new mask...the old mask didn't last too long it seem...
2) spray painted (primed) the elevator with the new mask...seems
that the new mask works
3) tried to fit the spinner but it seems i need a 5/8 drill to enlarge
the rear spinner flange
4) tricia helped out with washing wings and fuselage
5/14/2006 4-10:15pm
1) spray painted the rudder, ailerons and main wheel spats..didn't
get to the flaps but will do that tomorrow...also...i saw some wood
specs on my rudder in one place so i covered the wood table with
plastic... at the end i saw some specs of dried up paint on the
aileron edges as they touched the table...i think i might have to
suspend these like the wood spats over paper towel rolls
2) cleaned up a bunch inside the tent...
5/13/2006 4-10pm
1) made a table outside out of the crate wood so that i can move
painted parts from the inside of the paint booth to the outside
2) washed a bunch of control surfaces for painting
3) made a spat stand so that i can hang the spats up in the air
and paint all around
5/12/2006 3-1am
1) spray painted lots of miscellaneous parts (covers) including
cowl
5/11/2006 3pm-10pm
1) a lot has happened since my last log entry... unfortunately i
was a bit busy getting stuff ready for the painting and so some
entries were missed... i'll summarize a bit...
a) i connected the air filter to my compressor... the inlet on the
filter is 3/4 inch and outlet on the compressor is 1/2 inch... another
problem was the clearance and so i had to come up with a water pipe
contraption that hooked to the filter and rested on the compressor
handle..
b) i installed a HVAC air filter from home depot on the tent so
that i can have controlled place for air movements inside and out...
this allowed me to use a hairdrier to exhaust some air to the outside
of the tent so that it doesn't get too humid inside
c) i was bit concerned about dust...especially since some other
builders have had issues... because of this i sprayed corn syrup
(like pancake syrup but clear) onto the tent inside walls, floor
and ceiling using one of those pesticide sprayers from the gardening
department (diluted of course).. it seemed to cure the problem...the
tent was really dusty after sitting open in the hangar next to all
this sanding...this hangar gets dusty quick because my hangarmates
open the door often... (i now have sprayed my first parts and there's
no hint of dust from what i can tell)
d) after the dust, i had a lighting issue...these incandescent lights
are not strong enough for this hangar.. so i decided to fix the
lighting with 10 flourescent shoplights that hold 2 40 watt T12
flourescent bulbs... i arranged these lights much like a car paint
booth i've seen online.. it works quite well.. i also learned that
'residential' flourescent bulbs emit 'incandescent' type light and
daylight bulbs are the bluish flourescent... didn't like either..i
used the flourescent cool white which are the true white lights
that work well in shops
e) yesterday i intended spraying my first part but that didn't happen...unfortunately,
my hangar mate sold his ultralight and since he 'put out' his back,
i helped the buyer with disassembling the aircraft and loading it
on the trailer... not sure what their original plan was because
i'm not sure what they would have done if i didn't coincidentally
show up... anyway...since i wasted a lot of time, i decided to seal
the two front seats... i used aeropoxy and layed glass over the
header tank and the pilot seat... boy it looks like it's ready to
fly with these seats sealed... all i need are some cushions :)
d) talking about cushions, i got a quote of $1200 for custom made
seats... kind of a bummer since this is only the seats and to do
all of the interior would run more like $5-6K... since the primary
reason to build the experimental was cost, this doesn't sound like
a way to save money... so i decided to do my own upholstry... otherwise,
i might as well just buy a new cessna if i'm going to be forking
out loads of money and this way won't have to build at all... besides,
i really want something light for upholstry and it's something i
can redo easily without taking the aircraft out of service... besides,
i took 'Home Ec' in middle school so I'm good with fabric ... originally
i took home ec so that i could be a house-husband but that didn't
happen ;)
f) so as previously mentioned, i'm doing the paint... (yes it's
that save money thing again or buy a cessna)... anyway i've decided
that the plane is experimental and so the paint should be too...
(but not too experimental)... so i decided to go with AFS primer
and polyurethane...many reasons to this.. the biggest reason is
that it is an 'environmentally friendly' paint..it is waterborne
and so there's no fire hazard especially since i have lights on
the inside of my tent.. besides, the original paint that i considered
which is Imron sounds like lethal stuff...this way, i'm contributing
to the innovation of safe paints.. yeah.. that sounds good :) ..
who wants to choke on air anyway?! ... i just hope that this paint
isn't bad like the polyfiber waterborne that was removed from the
market... apparently those who used that had paint chip on them
a few months into it seems..real bummer... so if this one sucks
i'll be sure to post it visibly somewhere... by the way... AFS is
at www.aircraftfinishing.com ... hey free advertising for them
g) regarding more painting... spray gun...i had researched this
quite a long time.. i know you pay for what you get... but that's
only sometimes... and i don't want to blow a chunk on a nice SATA
spray gun since it's a one time use mostly.... so I bought SATA's
knockoff which is ASTRO for $80?.. since i don't know a damn thing
about spray painting i read forums and others had some good results
and say it's as good as the sata for 1/5 the price (or a very close
'almost')... i have shot it with this AFS primer and I can say that
it looks good... but i don't know jack about painting.. but it does
look good... no runs or any of those funky textures like orange
peal so far..took some pictures so you be the judge
2) i primed the top strut fairings using the ASTRO mentioned above
and AFS one part primer... i set the gun to 30psi with the trigger
pulled.. just thought of something... since this is friendly paint,
i guess you could use a regular high pressure spray gun and not
feel guilty that you are overpolluting the air... but the HVLP does
save paint as it transfers more efficiently... and if you haven't
guessed, polyurethane is over $200 a gallon... but if it were necessary
for a nice finish i would have gone high pressure... but it doesn't
sound like it from what i've read
3) washed a bunch of parts to remove any watersoluble stuff...tomorrow
i'll spray them
5/7/2006 4pm- 11:30pm
1) prepared the tent and washed some parts for painting...bought
painting supplies...etc..paint prep
5/6/2006 5-1am
1) sanded remaining bits with 220 grit by hand were necessary
2) did a major cleaning with tricia and resealled the tent ...getting
it ready for painting
5/4/2006 4-12:30am
1) lots of sanding with 220 grit...sanded all parts
5/2/2006 4:05-8:43pm
1) sanded all the filled areas from yesterday... smoothed out some
holes where the fuel lines enter the cabin... looks like i'm ready
to prep for painting..
2) used fine paper and sanded left wing surface with my sponged
sandpaper made using the random orbital sander.....used 320 grit...
will have to go home and research to see if this is good enough
or if it should be coarser or finer
5/1/2006 3:15pm-7:20pm
1) finished the cowl... installed a retaining nut for the cowl hinge
pins on both sides.. also installed the hid assembly with large
countersunk rivets... hopefully the HID works since i am going to
micro over the rivets.. also cut the oil door hinge arm so that
it clears the ram duct...it seems that it rubs on it really good
unless i cut the arm ..
2) filled in some more spots on wings, cowl and fuselage... it should
be done and ready for primer after this...
|
