The next day or so was preparation for doing the top spar cap.

As in Pic1 I build a little extension to each end so that when the tapes are laid out I can get a clean edge. Otherwise there is a risk of the tapes bunching up and causing air at the ends. This simple addition removes that possibility. I just added a bit of foam with some 5 mt glue.

You can also see a sort of dam wall on the outside to hold the tapes so we have a real trough of 3.1″ (80mm) to lay up in.

I cut peel ply and plastic and made some long foam pieces to put weights on. The spar is clearly marked so I know where the tapes start and end and all the pre cut tapes are numbered matching the printed layup schedule. I had also started the key thread on every tape so they were ready to pull out as in this layup all the cross threads get removed so the tapes will lay down flat. It is mentioned in the plans.

Extended cap trough

Pre cut UNI tapes

Equipment prep