Cherokee-M Construction - Fins
March 9, 2003:
Wrap the edges with carbon to secure the graphite spar. My first attempt at Food-saver vacuum-bagging. The fins were to wide for the widest food-saver bag, so I had to cut open two bags and seal them together to make a double-wide bag. The first try leaked a little, the next two worked great.
I used straight Aeropoxy (R2032 Resin and PH3660 hardener) and 5.7 oz. bidirectional carbon fabric, both from Aricraft Spruce. Wrapping the edges was a pain. The carbon really doesn't want to lay flat around that sharp a turn, and the vacuum kind of squished it off the edge a little, but it worked good enough. The end result were fins with nearly a foot and a half of area that have no flex at all but weigh barely over eight ounces each.
Vacuum bagging:
Ready to be attached:
