Yes thanks guys!
Yes thanks guys!
One wing down....3 to go😬. Quick question on the Oratex. We installed at 300f on the heat gun. Then we turned it to 350 and started to shrink it. It is pretty tight. How tight do you tighten it? Do we turn it up even more and shrink it more?
Best answer I can give you is to look in the manual and it will show how you press on the fabric with your fingertip with a certain force and see how long it takes for the dimple to disappear. I've done my tail feathers at 350 and it meets the criteria.
Rick
Don't exceed the recommended temp that is in the manual. It tightens to 100% of its tension then lets go and goes loose. Unrecoverable.
Eddie Forward
Flying
SS7, 912iS, Garmin G3X
Unless the formulation has changed, the maximum allowed temperature is 132 deg. F higher than PolyFiber (which is 350 deg. F). I did my whole airplane at about 320 deg. since that was as high as my Toko iron would go, and it is nice & tight, but there is a lot of "cushion" still to heat it to a higher temperature if necessary. The absolute maximum temperature according to Lars with Oratex is 482 deg. F (250 deg. C). The tighter you install the fabric before shrinking, the less heat it takes to get it to where you want it to be of course. Like Rick said, the manual specifies the test procedure for tightness.
John Evens
Arvada, CO
Kitfox SS7 N27JE
EAA Lifetime
Chap. 43 honorary Lifetime
Made some progress! We are liking the Oratex so far. We got the lower quality, found a few flaws but not bad. We got all the wings covered. Lots of work, glad that is done. We found these gloves at the hardware store that worked awesome. They insulate and they also have rubber fingers so one of us can pull the fabric tight. I think covering the wings first was a good decision because they are easy to do, just time consuming.
Testing the down-wash lights before covering. We put some lights in for all the camping trips we have planned!
Last edited by Shadowrider; 12-06-2018 at 10:19 PM.
That's some top notch looking work. You'll have a beautiful pair of planes.
--Brian
Flying - S7SS
Nice work! What down wash lights did you install in the wings? Looks great.
Clark
Definitely found the matching silver I see.
Eddie Forward
Flying
SS7, 912iS, Garmin G3X