NCFM Moth Build

Well Christmas 2015 is now gone and it's time to get on and build my Christmas present, and the first thing to do was look at the contents of the box.

Then I read the build instructions that came on the provided disc in PDF format. I also looked at a few build blogs I found on line.

The first assembly task was to join the wing halves with 5 minute epoxy, however I didn't have any, so 30 minute epoxy would have to do.

This is done whilst resting on the wing beds, so I taped the two wing bed panels together firstly.

Then, so as to not stick the joined wing to the beds with any epoxy which might drip through, I placed a piece of grease proof paper onto it, glued the two wing halves together and held them together using masking tape, and weighted it down with my sugar jar.

Once the glue had set, I then ran a length of masking tape along each side of spar groove. The two carbon tubes fit into an aluminium tube, which is slightly wider than the groove and the foam has to be marked and cut to allow this to fit.

There will be a gap at the end of each wing, and so foam from the wing bed has to be cut out to fit the spar slot and glued in place. I used UHU POR for this.

I then ran Gorilla Glue along the whole length of the spar grove and fitted the spar. I then covered this with more grease proof paper and weighted the spar down with tins of baked beans, tomatoes and whatever else I had in the kitchen cupboard and left it to dry overnight.

Upon inspection this morning, the Gorilla Glue had seeped through the foam and slightly stuck it to my building board, but this was easily prized off.

I only used a small drizzle of glue as it expands into a foam, but only a little of it had come up the sides of the carbon spar tube.

This evening I poured epoxy over the top of the carbon spar tubes and fitted the balsa spar cap filler strips.