I am happy to report that lessons learned from the november 2007 pole building experience have been learnt and we are very pleased with the tiller and mast stump for the E 5 built this week. The over length and untrimmed mast stump weighed in at 400 grams. We did taper the layers a bit.
We got very good consolidation which we think will make a big difference to weight and strength.
This was attributed to:
wetting out each cloth evenly but with less resin allowing each layer to be layed more compactly on to the mandrel.
after laying each cloth on the mandrel consolidating with hands (or roller)
spiral winding peal ply pulling it very tight after each turn
tightly winding heat shrink over the peal ply taping it in place and heating.
The heat shrink still squeezed out some resin so we new the layup was fully wetted out.
The finnished piece has an even surface and has a nice ring to it when tapped.