Wrapping the engine...

November 20, 2022
       Grab the popcorn...
                          This is gonna be fun!

This past week I downloaded an e-book on fiberglass and carbon fiber called "Fiberglass & Other Composite Materials" by Forbes Aird. A great book... easy to read and comprehesive. The guys on the biplane forum gave great advise and direction when I posed the question about building something in fiberglass and carbon fiber. But with something like this... I need to get into the guts of it, learn it inside and out.

Right now, I plan on making a plug for a cowl ring/air intake combination. I'll use the existing 46inch cowl ring I purchased and add the air intake onto it. To reduce the diameter of the existing 46inch ring to the 44inch diameter of Big Ass Bird's firewall, I purchased a sheet of 48inch x 48inch plywood. I'll route a 44inch diameter hole in the plywood and set this over the cowl ring. This will give me the correct diamter for the firewall. I'll use the plywood as a base on which I'll fabricate the air intake.

A lot of learning ahead for me. I can see this being a winter project. I hope to work on a few other projects in between the making of it... making use of that head scratching time that I always spend on something new.

December 11, 2022
       Maybe not...
                          so fun!?

Not a lot more has actually been done with the making of progress on the cowling and air intake... but a lot of reading has been going on.

I'm seeing, or should I say reading, about the toxcity of the entire process of fiberglass/carbon fiber... giving me second and third thoughts about doing in an in-home environment. Trying to keep those fumes out of the house? Makin' me think "English Wheel"... making the air intake out of a sheet of aluminum formed with the wheel. Seriously... the book I'm reading does a deep dive in the chemicals used and they ain't that environmentally friendly. I may change my mind on this... but it's not looking good for FRP's right now.

More to come...