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Prime day for priming

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All tailcone parts primed and labeled

ANOTHER PERFECT DAY

One of the challenges of priming parts in Indiana is getting the weather to cooperate. At least I thought that would be the case. It turns out that patience pays and I was rewarded with a 60 degree day with clear sunny skies and zero wind for priming today. I was wrestling for the past two weeks with the idea of building a spray station in my garage or basement. This would require fans, ventilation to the outside, and maintaining sufficient heat for allowing the primer to adhere and dry.

One of the questions that I had was whether or not these conditions were enough. I went straight to the source and checked with AKZO Nobel on their product page. They have a technical data sheet available online that I used to verify proper conditions. I was able to discover that 60 degrees would be sufficient and went to work.

A NOTE ON THE PROCESS

I have posted before on my challenges with learning the right process for priming the various parts of the plane. I am pretty happy with what I came up with in the most recent iteration so I will link up that process here. It involves little spillage or wasting of primer in measuring cups and a precise way of measuring out the 1:1 ratio required for a good epoxy primer. Having a good system design really helps the overall flow on a big priming day.

fINALLY THE ACTUAL PRIMING

Tailcone parts being primed

This is the actual priming process at work! Here are a few of the tailcone pieces being primed in the driveway. I primed them out here and then transferred back to the garage where they could dry on their original labeled placements. Clean and easy.

All tailcone parts primed and labeled

I placed all of the primed parts back in the garage to dry. This helps to organize them and make sure that I relabel them accordingly. This is an incredibly satisfying part of the day. I really enjoy seeing everything laid out and completely primed. I also will confess that the shade of green from the AKZO primer is just flat out cool looking. Another great session on the books!

Total time today – 4.5 hours
Total time empennage – 163.5 hours
Total time aircraft – 163.5 hours

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