I paid the price for screwing up last weekend by spending four hours re-cutting all the Upper Folding Strut Side Wall panels to the correct 45/45 fiber orientation.
The pivot pin holes were then marked and bored to 32mm as indicated and then the outer (thicker) pads were glued into position. Once that cures, I'll bore the holes again before flipping the panels over to glue the inside pads into position and finally boring once again.
I did it this way to ensure the matching set of holes were lined up as accurately as possible.
The
stucco and fiberglass hole saw can be ordered in the correct size and has carbide teeth running along the outside edge of the cutter. This produces a really clean hole, but you do need to come in from both sides to prevent tearing out the bottom face as shown in one of the test case pictures below.
Always test first!
Also, since these panels have not been post-cured yet, they were much easier to cut but do tend to gum up the cutter, so you have to stop often to clear the teeth to ensure a clean cut. Not a big deal really, just take your time.
I also built out the pivot pin bushings. These consisted of a 2" (50mm) length of G10 tubing heated up to accept a frozen IGUS bushing. The slight expansion/contraction difference allowed them to slide together fairly easily with just a little "persuasion" from a small hammer and a block of wood. After the assembly was settled to room temperature, I measured the bushing ID at 1.001" (25.425mm).
Those will get glued into place as soon as I figure out how to make the wooden spacer to separate the halves. That spacer needs to keep the halves a set distance apart from one another while following the profile edge and accommodating a chamfered edge along the top, some recesses for the inner pad and a releasable surface to top it all off. I think that'll be a tricky piece to get right, so I'm still thinking about it.
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| Spacer complexity... |
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| Correct fiber orientation (45/45). I drilled a small pilot hole to mark the pivot pin hole. In this shot, I ran a small nail through all eight panels to get everything lined up before sanding the surfaces close to level. The white edge you see along the bottom is peel-ply coming up from the surface of the fiberglass. |
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| Top shot of all eight side panels. These measure out to 4.7mm, the plans call for 4-5mm consisting of six layers of 18oz. However, when infusing you get much higher fiber density which resulted in using ten layers instead of six, so these parts are unfortunately heavier, but much stronger (than needed) as well. |
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| Thick reinforcement pads (28 layers of 18oz fiberglass) marked out to be cut at 45/45 fiber orientation |
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Matching set of panels bored to 32mm.
I marked and cut the panels so that each matching pair would have the flat, smooth side facing the inside of the UFS slot, leaving the rougher side to face inside of the beam itself. |
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| Peel Ply removed to accept the glued on thick pad |
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| Thick pads ready to be glued into place. |
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Test piece for getting the Drill press dialed in. You'll notice the lower hole was bored straight through.
This resulted in fabric tear-out.
The second hole was bored through both sides resulting in a much better finish. |
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| And most importantly, a neat fit for the G10 tubing |
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| G10 tubing SLOWLY cut with the Compound Miter Saw to correct length with IGUS bushings (black) inserted flush. |
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| Eight bushings, ready to be glued into place later on. |
