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From: Graham Nutt <GrahamN@trace.com.au>
To: "'lancair.list@olsusa.com'" <lancair.list@olsusa.com>
Subject: Uniform gaps
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 23:30:29 +1100 
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I too have been chasing perfection in the gap department. My solution is to
get one part with straight edges, uniform radius corners etc (such as the
hatches, cowling, forward deck etc.
I then use strips of .025 cardboard that I happened to have, tacked it
around the edges with cyanoacrylate glue (I use medium Zap and accelerator
from hobby store). I then trim to the back of the item with a sharp blade
and then use duct tape over the cardboard and trim to wrap around the back
of the item a little. the duct tape seems to provide adequate release on
small areas such as these. This gives me a total of about .030 gap. I then
put the item in place and back file with flox. Once cured I just file and
sand the flox back down to the height of the item. I also use 2-3 layers of
duct tape at the back of the item to allow for paint thickness. You may need
more depending on your painting system.
In some areas, particularly the back of the canopy frame, I only used the
flox to build up the edge to about 1/8" wide (to keep it tough) then
backfilled with micro where necessary.
The only place I came unstuck with .030" was the canopy. I set the gap in
winter - looked great. Come summer the acrylic canopy expanded considerably
causing the gap at the back of the canopy to disappear. Ho-hum!
Not only are uniform gaps stimulating to the eyeball but straight lines and
smooth curves in conjunction with gaps make for great eyeball stimulation.
Non builders won't know why particularly but they will know that it looks
great. 
I found the hardest part to be the cowl/fwd deck/canopy line followed by
gaps between control surface and their fixed counterpart.
All this is probably why this aircraft has taken FOREVER to build.


Hope this is of some use to someone.

Regards 
Graham Nutt

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