Priming

7 January 2022 Empennage / Priming

Did my first real priming today. My earlier test on the internal panels didn’t turn out too well. Streaky and poor coverage. Too cold and me never used an air spray gun before! Anyway, after a bit of learning on YouTube and an understanding of gun adjustments. I did some tests on the packing crate wood, I started on the real parts. Rudder and vertical stabiliser. It’s December and the outside temperature is 4 C, Aerowave 2001 the two-part primer I am using requires at least 15C and less than 80% humidity. I heated up the booth to 15C and carefully started. Took about an hour and 300 ml of Aerowave to do the first parts. Used a small HVLP gun at 29 PSI with a 1 mm nozzle and works quite well once I got the hang of the adjustments. For the second run of priming, I used 400 mL of Aerowave for the larger parts of the HS and elevator including skins internal surfaces only.

4 January 2022 Priming

Paint booth and PPE

There’s a lot of debate about corrosion protection. As I have a quick build kit many of the parts are already treated with Alodine at the factory. However, for the empennage flaps and ailerons, I am on my own. After a lot of studies, I decided since I live on a rainy island in the Atlantic, that I needed to do something. Elected to use Aerowave 2001 primer. It’s not intended for general public use, so spent a lot of time studying the safety sheet and also learning about respirator types and specifications. I needed some decent personal protective equipment. The main one being a good full-face respirator with the correct filters. That is both a vapour filter (for the VOC’s) and a very fine dust filter for paint droplets. So an A2 for VOC’s plus a P3 filter, also known as (EN149) FFP3 or N99 in USA. (Note P2 or FFP2 (Europe) or N95 (USA) or KN95 (China) are lower specification and not suitable). I used a full face respirator to give sufficient Assigned Protection Factor. Went with a 3M 6000 series respirator. Not wanting to risk my exposure to chromates to a fake mask or filters. Also used a full paper suit and a good (Vevor 200 mm) extractor fan with 10m of hose to poke out of the window.

11 November 2021 Priming

Alodining Small Parts

My quick build fuselage is largely already alodinded by the factory. Many additional parts to add to the fuselage that are untreated. Have decided to treat them with brush Bonderite M-CR ALCRM 1200. (Hard to get Alodine 1201 bath dip version). So that there is some consistency of treatment. My target is to treat any critical parts and those exposed to the elements, such as torque tube clamps and inspection panels. Pre-treated with Deoxidine 624 phosphoric acid. Applied the 1200 for 10 min. Even so, the colour didn’t turn out very deep, probably a bit too cold in the workshop. Like many fellow builders in the UK at present, the empennage will use Aerowave treatment and spray the components.