Brief Description: LEFT Wing - Vacuum bend forward skin
I used the vacuum form method to bend my left leading edge wing skin. I have a wimpy shop vac and it wasn't powerfull enough to get it bent. My wife's upright house vac worked fine, though!
When I laid out and cut this skin I made some mistakes. I'm still hoping I can get it to work, but if not then I'll just have to consider this a practice run. A $138 practice run (the cost of a 12' long sheet of .025).
I started off bending using masking tape, as some others had suggested, but it just wasn't strong enough once the bend got tighter, so I switched to duct tape (it's what I had on hand) and that worked great.
There is a good video of the process at: http://sonexproject.com/Builder%20Resources.html
More pics on the next pages.
4 mil plastic laid on table. Skin on top. 1-1/2" pipe clamped on top.
4 mil plastic laid on table. Skin on top. 1-1/2" pipe clamped on top.
