Hi,
Please don't polish the panels before riveting. Build the plane, fly it
enjoy it and than after a year or two, than take the time to polish it if it
needs it. Can you tell I like to fly more than work on it.
Happy Flying
Mark Beierle, Earthstar Aircraft.
In a message dated 4/8/2013 12:42:28 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
rahul.chou@gmail.com writes:
seems like polishing the panels before riveting may be easier, like on a
solid block of wood. that soldiering pose was quite an amazing picture, Gary.
Is this your third odyssey build?
(rubbing down the microscopic hills reminded me of sionyx, silicon with
microscopic Grand Canyons so deep photons never reflect back)
On 07-Apr-2013, at 7:22 PM, Gary Carter <
_gjcarter34@gmail.com_
(mailto:
gjcarter34@gmail.com) > wrote:
Most likely Nuvite will have a plane in their tent being polished at
Oshkosh, they do each year. It would be worth your while to get some hands on
experience with them helping you. It does take some time to develop a feel
for it and when you do, it polishes much easier. I would consider polishing
a winter project, the initial polishing is time consuming and you need to
take your time with many light passes. Once this is done correctly, then a
maintenance polish each year goes rather quickly and is nothing compared to
the first time. The trick is to do the maintenance polish and not wait
until it looks like it needs it. If you hangar your plane then this would only
need to be done once a year unless you left it out in the rain. I found
if it does get rained on then spend about an hour just on the top with the
cyclo and the shine is back.
Nuvite also has a cleaning polish that I use on the leading edge to remove
bugs and dust, takes about 5 minutes.
Even if we could powdercoat the wing, as Mark said, polishing looks
better. The powdercoat doesn't flow out as nicely as paint will on a large flat
surface. I wonder if applying a thin coat would help with that. I did do a
flex test and could not get the powder to crack on aluminum, even when bent
180 degrees over many times.
On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 9:24 AM, Fred <
_fgayford@silomail.com_
(mailto:
fgayford@silomail.com) > wrote:
Thanks Mark
I will stay with polishing. I am going to look for those cyclone double
pad polishers at Oshkosh this year and maybe spring for Nuvite polish. I have
been using "Autosol polish" so far.
Fred
--- In
_Earthstar_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com_
(mailto:
Earthstar_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com) , thundergul@... wrote:
>
> Hi Fred
> They are both true. You mostly rub the aluminum down and this makes it
> really smooth, the plane fly's better because it is smooth,it looks
better
> because it is smooth and reflects light better. but your cloth is black
because
> it removes the oxide. and a little aluminum. but not much. over he last
80
> years that we have been polishing aluminum I would think we would have
> some good information on exactly how much thinner the aluminum is
getting, but
> I have never seen any scientific data, just people ho don't want to do
the
> work so they justify there lazy ness by saying that they don't want to
> make there plane weaker.
> Happy Flying
> Mark
>
>
> In a message dated 4/4/2013 7:48:48 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> fgayford@... writes:
>
>
>
>
> Some of the guys at our field, have said that I am removing aluminum
every
> time I polish and so weakening the wing.
> I thought that that makes sense but figured I had 40 years worth before
it
> became a problem.
> I was just on youtube where a guy demonstrating this cyclone polisher on
a
> airstream said something that made me think abit.
> He said that most people think that when you polish aluminium you are
> removing material.(oxide of course) He went on to say that on a
microscopic
> level you only push the metal around smoothing it out. The peaks are
smoothed
> into the valleys.
> I would like to think this was true!
> Do any of you guys know anything about this?
> Fred
>