Very impressed with the bagging technique. Seems to me that the vacuum brings the balsa of the LE and TE to a water tight seal with the wing balsa sheeting. Not a single gap. In some areas, I cannot differentiate between the LE and balsa sheeting, (after I have sanded it down).
tip of the right wing. The balsa sheets were not edge glued. There is quite a bit of discussion regarding this, which has created two groups of people, those who edge glue and those who do not. I have reviewed a great deal of threads that demonstrate either way. In summary, if you edge glue, once you are done, before sheeting the wing, the surface is sanded smooth at the joints. But, edge gluing is time consuming. IF you do not edge glue, it is much quicker , however, once you have sheeted it, you then have to sand the joints on a curve. Which, is not really an issue, since I always will sand it down, in preparing for the hair spray coat then the smoothing out and covering stage. Another advantage of not edge gluing, if you ask me, is that, if you use a vacuum bag technique, the glue will penetrate into the joints, and thus, if you use epoxy or poly urethane glue, you will get that in there. You cannot see it now, since I have sanded down the wing, but you could see the red dye between the joints, where the epoxy penetrated, which sure is a comforting thing to see.
Leading edge at the tip.
leading edge at the root.
trailing edge. Again, the vacuum bag really sucked it down. I have a new tool!
I have reweighed the right wing, the LE and TE with the glue has added 2 ounces to the wing. SO now we are up to 2 pounds and 8 ounces.
When I get home from work today, I will sand the left wing, and also weigh it. I forgot to mention, I will be adding a 1/8" thick balsa cap to the root, so that it will protect the edge of the balsa from the top and bottom sheeting. Additionally, this will be a much better surface for the Monokote to adhere to. Well, at least for me, I have a difficult time getting covering to adhere to plywood.
