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Thanks for the feedback everyone.
I talked to Marty at Stewart Systems for a good bit the other day, and he confirmed what you guys have said above. He said that coating all of the fabric with the EkoBond before applying EkoFill was the original FAA-approved STC process, and that they had taken that step out because they were trying to "streamline" the process for builders (for competitive, marketing reasons it seems). And yes, it turned out that the guys in Alaska who were working in heated shops were having the fabric dry out so much that the EkoFill wouldn't saturate the fabric, then when the aircraft was sitting out in the humid air and moisture would accumulate inside the structure, it would soak through the fabric and into the EkoFill making it swell or blister. SS changed the process back to the original STC to ensure that this wouldn't be a problem again. That's good-to-know info right there. I need to retract my remarks and ranting session above, haha. I'm happy now.
It appears that it likely didn't give me problems before because I was working in a hot humid environment, so the fabric was a bit damp anyway and the EkoFill saturated the fabric just fine. I am happy with what I learned, and I also found out that if someone wanted to have the inside of their fuselage look like cotton or linen, you can get the "linen" colored EkoBond and not have a green-frog interior,
. Marty said the green is simply a dye they put in it to help see it better, and the linen color is just the EkoBond without the dye - cool if that's your thing.
I'm hoping to give this a try this summer when it warms up around here - my hangar is not heated. 60x75 with 14' walls is just way too much $$$ for me to spend for heat
, didn't think about that when I was planning it... This is a case where a nice cozy insulated garage would be better.
I talked to Marty at Stewart Systems for a good bit the other day, and he confirmed what you guys have said above. He said that coating all of the fabric with the EkoBond before applying EkoFill was the original FAA-approved STC process, and that they had taken that step out because they were trying to "streamline" the process for builders (for competitive, marketing reasons it seems). And yes, it turned out that the guys in Alaska who were working in heated shops were having the fabric dry out so much that the EkoFill wouldn't saturate the fabric, then when the aircraft was sitting out in the humid air and moisture would accumulate inside the structure, it would soak through the fabric and into the EkoFill making it swell or blister. SS changed the process back to the original STC to ensure that this wouldn't be a problem again. That's good-to-know info right there. I need to retract my remarks and ranting session above, haha. I'm happy now.
It appears that it likely didn't give me problems before because I was working in a hot humid environment, so the fabric was a bit damp anyway and the EkoFill saturated the fabric just fine. I am happy with what I learned, and I also found out that if someone wanted to have the inside of their fuselage look like cotton or linen, you can get the "linen" colored EkoBond and not have a green-frog interior,
. Marty said the green is simply a dye they put in it to help see it better, and the linen color is just the EkoBond without the dye - cool if that's your thing.I'm hoping to give this a try this summer when it warms up around here - my hangar is not heated. 60x75 with 14' walls is just way too much $$$ for me to spend for heat
, didn't think about that when I was planning it... This is a case where a nice cozy insulated garage would be better.
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