Wings are now considered complete at this point – at least until I am ready to cover them. In order to complete I put a couple of coats of Helms Urathan satin varnish. Initially, I started using cans of spray paint but they did not do far. Switch to using Harbor Freight gravity feed spray gone (Cheap $20 smaller unit) that others on the forums were saying they had success with.

In order to get a good spray I had to install a filter and regulator on my air compressor to that I used to keep the moisture out and reduce the pressure way down – think I was running at 20psi or even a little lower for best results.

Having completed varnishing the wings I use a couple of bicycle suspension storage pulleys to mount the wings up in the rafters of my garage for storage for now. That worked out well and keeps them out of the way will progressing to the next part of the build – the aluminum Empennage parts!

Oh, also 3D printed a couple of V-shaped parts to hold the ailerons in place but they did not really work out that well – they keep slipping off. Probably need to think of a better method for holding them in place on the finished plane.

4 Replies to “Wings varnished and hung – moving on…

  1. Love your build log…. watching as I build mine… Very helpful… Oh FYI “Wings vanished…” – I guess they did vanish from your workbench… One question about varnish, will our covering stick to varnished surfaces or is that masked off too from varnish like we do with the glue joints?

    1. Good catch – did not even notice the typo.
      And as far as varnish goes – no did not mask off surfaces for covering – that was not an issue at all when putting on the fabric and I believe the glue used for this is expecting it. Just like if we cover the steel frame we paint it first and the paint is also not an issue to the glue. Anyway, had no issues with the fabric glue sticking – although I did have to do some sanding over the varnished surfaces because afterward the surface was a little rough.

Leave a Reply