With much anticipation, open the bag
and remove the tape. You'll either jump for joy or
gasp in horror. The TE always warps to some degree-usually
not too badly. If it looks hopeless, it probably isn't,
and if it is, it's repairable. Remember that most
of this gets trimmed off
Move on to the next
step.
Remember what I said about denting
the wing while working on it. You have to be careful
as even your forearm muscle can put big dents in the
wing while you hold it down. You can fix these with
light spackle, but it's better not to have to at all.
Using the sanding stick, hold the wing in the cores
and sand the LE and tips. Don't sand in an up/down
motion or you will break the balsa off rather than
sand it. When this is done, measure the TE using the
tip chord (minus the LE which isn't there yet) and
cut the TE to the proper size. Remembering that you'll
be sanding the TE to a sharp point, decide now if
it's too warped to be sanded. If so, trim the warped
TE off and butt-glue a piece of balsa in it's place.
Use a razor plane to rough it down to the proper shape
and continue with the rest of the wing.
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Glue the LE in place, sand the
tips flush, then add your wingtips. Here's where your
magic sanding stick comes to the rescue! Holding the
wing in the core beds any way you can, start roughing
and shaping the LE. When this is done, do the same
to the tips. Finish shaping the LE and tips now, if
the tips look too boxy, hit them up with sandpaper
by hand.
Start shaping the TE with the
sanding stick. Pay attention to the direction of the
small warps in the wing, this is where you fix them.
You want to work towards having a wing that's almost
razor sharp. Give the TE of the tips a drop of thin
CA to keep them ding resistant and sand them smooth
again.
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