Supplimental videos posted

Vans posted some videos showing how to do some of the fiberglass work on the canopy. I think that is Scott in the video, and if so public thanks to him for all the great advice here as well as elsewhere.

One thing which would be great would be to publish some of these for Fuel tank sealant work (showing baffle, and maybe one rib). That is an area which is seldom covered in Eaa classes, and just like the glass work is often feared due to unfamiliarity. Basic sheet metal is well covered by classes and videos so that is all set.

Kudos to Vans for this.

https://www.vansaircraft.com/public/service-rv14.htm

Just saw that my spelling leaves a lot to be desired in the title, sorry cannot change it!

This is AWESOME! I'm pulling the canopy tomorrow for my next step in the build. I had a good idea of what to do with instructions and other builder sites but for me a video tutorial takes all the worry of "I think this how they did it" out. Thanks Van's!

Videos

Thanks a million Scott, that is great, watched the whole thing. I will probably watch a couple of more times before I start. The final feathering seems to be the most tedious. I didn't see the 4" sanding block with the contour for the middle section that you mention in the video and haven't received the plans yet. Is it something we can purchase or do we make it? May as well have something to do while I await it's arrival. Great video and very informative for us neophytes, really, really appreciate it.

Thanks Van's and Jeff

Great video of specifically how to accomplish a good finished product in fiberglass. Appreciate the post, Jeff.

Add my "Awesome" to the list

This video shows the skill and preparation that Vans uses in their builds. The precision in cutting and laying the fiberglass to get the desired result was incredible. I can certainly use this information on my 7 for the forward canopy work. Vans communications of work methods are light years ahead of the documentation for my 7. Well, literally, a decade.

Minor note...there is some discussion of mixing cups about 2 minutes into the second video.

The best cups have a flat bottom, without any molded-in embossing. If the bottom isn't flat, there is a tendency to trap unmixed material where the mixing stick can't reach.

Do not use a waxed cup. Most paper cups these days are plastic coated, which work fine.

I use a Publix house brand coated paper cup.

Very good point regarding the cups Dan.... I work all the nooks with the stir stick and then the brush before using the resin, without even thinking about it.
The NO WAX cups is very important which is why I suggested plastic cups because some people can't tell the difference.

All of the formatting and editing kudos go to Adam Burch... considering what we dropped on his desk (as far as video footage goes) I think they turned out pretty well.

All of the video was shot in one take on the fly without any scripting so there probably will be other small details that were missed since most of it was just thinking out loud while the work was being done. They are not to be considered comprehensive as a stand alone document for the RV-14. There is a lot of subject matter that was edited out to try and reduce the yawn factor, if it was going to be redundant to the construction manual.
An example is the sanding blocks. There will be details in the plans for making those. Because of the way the video was produced there will undoubtedly be a few details that are mentioned that got missed because of the nonexistent script.
Hopefully they will still be helpful to RV-14 builders, and to some degree people building other models as well.

Regarding a radiused sanding block, I can share an idea that worked extremely well on my RV-7A's canopy. I'm guessing the radius is very similar for the RV-14, so feel free to try this. I used a standard hard rubber sanding block, commonly available at Home Depot or Lowe's, for example, with the sandpaper stretched across the curved top rather than the flat bottom. This turned out to be just right! For the initial sanding, I started with 40-grit sandpaper. It was easy to switch to finer grades as the work progressed. As you can see, the 40-grit produces tons of dust, and your sandpaper looks like this in just a few minutes.



I kept my shop vac close at hand for this work. I flipped it on every few minutes and sucked off all the dust from the work, and also cleaned up my sanding block. My technique is to hold the hose in between my legs, and using a small wire brush, brush the sandpaper vigorously while it's over the hose and let the vacuum suck away the dust. This greatly extends the life of your sandpaper and makes less work exchanging for new pieces of sandpaper. Plus, your shop stays clean as a whistle. Below, sandpaper looks like new! I sanded the whole fairing down with just one piece. Then switched to finer grades.



Here's a shot of that technique, with the vacuum hose clamped between my legs and the brush attachment on the end. This really works great.



Here I was using 150 grit to sand down a filler application of resin and micro balloons:



A couple shots of the finished product.





I hope this is helpful for the RV-14. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I stole it from fellow builders back when I was doing my canopy fairing work.