Parts cleaning and priming

I decided to crack open step 1 (HS-ASS-001-C-F-0, sheet 2) of the empennage instruction this evening and get something done.

This steps requires dimpling a bunch of parts which becomes a horizontal stablizing rib assembly.

Steps

The stpes I took this evening:

1. I picked out the parts needed at this step from the crate
2. Peeled the protective film off all parts
3. Cleaned with BondRite and rinsed with water
4. Primed with rattle can Rustoleum

Peeling protective films

Boy was it hard to peel those off. It took me about 70% of the working time on peeling off films and really hurt my fingers. I could not think of a smart way to do this. If someone knows a way to easiliy get the film off please let me know.

Labeling

One note on peeling off protective film here: once the film is off, the part label goes off with it. I tried a few ways to label the parts.

First I tried to attach printer label. It was a bad idea. The sticky label was made from paper and sticks to aluminum extremely well. It was near impossible to peel them off. It leaves nasty glue on the surface.

I then bought 1000 tags like this. Each tag has a cotton string and I just loop the string in a hole in each part. It worked pretty well. The tags survived bondrite and rinse.

Cleaning

I put some bondrite in a spray bottle and squirted on all 10 parts, scrubbed them with maroon pad and rinsed them off.

This was the first time I deal with parts in batch so it went a little slow.

Once bondrite was applied, it almost immediately started to show effect on the aluminum. I was easily able to scrub off the factory paintings from the parts.

Then I rinsed them in a big bucket and hang them on a make shift part stand I converted from the empennage kit’s lid.

Priming

The parts are all very small, I did not feel like setting up my compressor and spray gun. So I went with the rattle can Rustoleum.

I painted one side, waited a few minutes to dry then flipped to do the other side.

To be continued

After priming, I just have to wait for it to dry and harden. I will check back tomorrow or maybe Sunday before trying to dimple.