A major step in preparing the landing gear bulkheads is the creation of 4 hardpoints (LG-1, LG-2) that get attached to the foam bulkheads before they get glassed. You do this by laying up enough fiberglass to create a 1/4 inch plate of fiberglass in an 8x12 rectangle. The plate is 1/4 inch thick to match the thickness of the foam where they will be attached. Below is the cured 1/4 inch plate after trimming off the excess glass cloth.
The task took me 23 layers of glass and 4 hrs just to get it all layed up and wet out. Once it's layed up, you weight it down with about 60lbs to form a nice 1/4 inch plate when cured. The thicker black lines you see in the picture are just sharpie marks I had on some of the glass cloth. The thinner lines are the outlines for the parts I'm making.
Once cured, you trace the shapes of the parts and cut them out with a table saw, sabre saw, etc. Above are the finished parts ready to be epoxied to the foam part of the bulkhead to form the full bulkhead.
Below, cutouts are made in the foam bulkheads and the hardpoints attached. Finally, each bulkhead will be fiberglassed front and back and installed when the fuselage is built up.
cab
Hey CAB - Neat blogsite. Project looks like a lot of fun and work. Don't forget that I have two hands if you ever need some help or give me a call if you just want to show off your latest accomplishment. Talk to you later. TB.
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