Warren Nethercote wrote:
Aircraft Spruce also stocks Divinycel foam.
Yes they do and also honeycomb but only in narrow thickness... Aircraft spruce is a problem for me.. I suffer from "Well Im paying for shipping anyway, might as well stock up"... it gets expensive.
No more excuses for slow progress.. Its just life happening, but here's what I am doing..
Originally the radiator intake was going to be composite due to the angles and compound curves desired for flow. I'm avoiding fiberglass work until the weather improves but I want to move on. Thought about a sheet metal intake from thin aluminum but I didn't want to make it from my dwindling supply of sheet stock 2024-t3.. Its expense and no one has any surplus around here.. that I can find.. I don't like solid riveting 6061-t6 as it deforms during the riveting process unless you can squeeze every rivet...."Hey wait a minute, I just bought a TIG welder and I have a few large pieces of 5052, Ill just make it from that".... Well I made two. The first one warped the mounting flange as I was butt welding on one of the last flanges... aluminum really expands when welding.. that one got punted out of the shop into a snow bank in frustration.. I've been through 2 design changes and 2 material changes this should be that hard.
Onto version two.. went even thinner on the material which I ended up buying. simple and see it to be effective. I may end up adding some vanes to better direct airflow. in the end.. This radiator is more than double the size of the bike radiator so there is excess cooling capacity built into the system.. I may modify the exit if it proves inadequate.
The mounting flange will be riveted to the lower metal sidepod wall and the shroud/intake will be bolted/screwed to that. The flange was made from some surplus 7075-t651 bulbed extrusion. It was pretty oxidized with some minor filiform corrosion.. cleanup and primed.. This aluminum is hard like steel and you'd think your drilling butter when you drill some 6061-t6 after drilling 7075.. neat stuff but prone to corrosion.. not need to prime the 5052.. its pretty corrosion resistant.
Pics and grammar/spelling correction to follow.