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Wing tip bow repair

jimboflying

MEMBER
My wingtip bow became cracked before I got it covered. The fracture line was long but only partway through the wood so I decided to repair it. I loosened the screws to take any pressure off I then used flexible epoxy in the cracked portion and then clamped it until cured. I next decided to put a Carbon fiber sleeve over the whole bow incase it may happen at some point in the future again. The 1 inch sleeve is like Chinese finger cuffs so it can expand or contract as needed. I slide the sleeve over the wooden bow. I then applied West System epoxy resin with a brush and wrapped it with peel ply dacron fabric to remove any excess resin and act as a compression wrap. I then replaced some of the screws and used some twine to hold the bow in it’s correct position during the final cure of the resin. After the resin cures the peel ply wrap is removed. The resin does not stick to the Dacron cloth peel ply. Any extra wet resin wicks its way through the peel ply so you wind up with minimal extra resin.
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That seems like a lot of work to salvage a $30 part instead of just replacing it. Somebody glued and taped a broken wing bow when they recovered my wings. I got to replace it a few years ago when it failed, and I continue to find it strange that somebody would install a broken part.
 
That seems like a lot of work to salvage a $30 part instead of just replacing it. Somebody glued and taped a broken wing bow when they recovered my wings. I got to replace it a few years ago when it failed, and I continue to find it strange that somebody would install a broken part.
Instead of having a wood tip bow subject to hangar door rash, he now has a carbon fiber reinforced tip bow. Much stronger.
 
I get the value of carbon fiber reinforcement. But I would start with an un-cracked piece of wood is all.
 
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