Eos Mold Finishing

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Toni Carlstrom

Aerodynamics team has been hard at work finishing the mold milled by Cirrus Aircraft in Duluth by filling in cracks with drywall plaster and painting. We received a donation of 10lb foam from Dyplast, and then the foam was milled square up at Enberg Logging Supply in Motley, MN. The foam was glued together using a foaming compound that was intended to fill all of the gaps between the blocks.  However, the glue did not foam as much as expected and there were larger cracks to fill in the mold.

We are very grateful that Enberg Lumber Supply was able to mill down our foam blocks into square shapes. During the Daedalus build cycle, the team milled down the raw foam buns into square shapes by using a home-made jig and routers. This resulted in much more dust than for Eos. However, there is still foam dust on most surfaces in the shop.

The mold started off with just foam, and Aero team was careful not to sand it too much. Once the mold was smooth, alternating coats of dark and light paint were applied and sanded down so that Aero team could see if they sanded through a layer of paint. Aero team set up a paint booth that takes up about half of our shop. The booth has ventilation so that the sanders and painters can get fresh air. All team members working on the molds use respirators to avoid breathing paint dust. Despite having a booth, paint dust got everywhere.