Allegro lite build question

[ScottLister]

I am about ready to start building the allegro lite and need to know if I can or should laminate .007 unicarbon strips to get the tapered laminate called for on the plans. The .007 carbon I have is the prepreg stuff. I was thinking of cutting it to the size on the plans and laminating it in the vac. bag to get a good bond. The tapered laminate that cst or acp sells, would that be stronger? Any help would be great, I can't wait to get started.

Thanks
Scott

[markdrela]

I am about ready to start building the allegro lite and need to know if I can or should laminate .007 unicarbon strips to get the tapered laminate called for on the plans. Yes, but I suspect it will be a tedious and messy job to coat all those individual strips, and align them carefully when clamping down. Just doing the single lamination for the top center cap is messy enough. The CST or ACP tapered carbon isn't all that expensive, and will save a lot of time and work.

Note also that the 0.007" CF is actually 0.005" CF, with 0.002" of glass to keep it from splitting. So if you laminate it to the right thickness, you will actually have about 30% less carbon in there than you think. You can shave off the glass before laminating. OK for one of two strips, but it'll be tedious for the large number of strips you'll have.