Sig Sand and Sealer Sucks

I ordered a can of Sig Sand and Sealer. This stuff seems to have a 95% shrink rate. 10 coats and it still looks like it needs more. I think this stuff is worthless.

I tried Spackling. The stuff is almost impossible to make it stick to balsa. Pile it on thick and sand it down the next day. I peals off if not careful. The stuff must be made out of powdered styrofoam because it seems to melt when I run the hot monokote iron over it.

Auto Bondo works. Give it about 30 minutes to get semi hard and sand it off while it is still easy to sand. Be careful sence the stuff is not totally hard it peals off easy.

Epoxy glue works great but is very hard to sand smooth without causing damage to balsa.

The new light weight sheet rock mud works good. Put it on with a puddy knife or finger. Sticks to wood very well. After it dries sand it smooth in seconds. Paint the dry plaster with sig clean coat. The plaster soaks up the clean coat like a sponge soaks up water and the plaster gets hard, sticks tight, won't fall out. This works the best of all.

Does anyone know of a product that is easy, that works???

Yes, Brodaks Sanding Sealer.

Ty:
The big problem with Brodak sealer is that it is huge heavy...
I believe that sanding to , say, 400 grit before applying any sealer keeps the weight down.

See Ya

>I ordered a can of Sig Sand and Sealer. This stuff seems to
>have a 95% shrink rate. 10 coats and it still looks like it
>needs more. I think this stuff is worthless.
>
>I tried Spackling. The stuff is almost impossible to make
>it stick to balsa. Pile it on thick and sand it down the
>next day. I peals off if not careful. The stuff must be
>made out of powdered styrofoam because it seems to melt when
>I run the hot monokote iron over it.
>
>Auto Bondo works. Give it about 30 minutes to get semi hard
>and sand it off while it is still easy to sand. Be careful
>sence the stuff is not totally hard it peals off easy.
>
>Epoxy glue works great but is very hard to sand smooth
>without causing damage to balsa.
>
>The new light weight sheet rock mud works good. Put it on
>with a puddy knife or finger. Sticks to wood very well.
>After it dries sand it smooth in seconds. Paint the dry
>plaster with sig clean coat. The plaster soaks up the clean
>coat like a sponge soaks up water and the plaster gets hard,
>sticks tight, won't fall out. This works the best of all.
>
>Does anyone know of a product that is easy, that works???
>
>Gary Weaver

Are you using X-Kote?

If your not try this. Take Z-Poxy spraed with credit card, Then squegee it all off.(I do mean ALL!) Then dry with paper towl. Let dry for 24 hrs. Sand smooth. Very light way to seal wood.

If you are using X-Kote.

Use the stuff intended for it. I think it's called Balsa-rite monokote primer.

Good luck!

I still use the ole fashioned baby powder and clear dope. I save all of the sanding dust particals that I can, and add them in also. Seems to fill the wood fairly quick. You can always add more baby powder if needed. AND,,,,,it smells good when ya sand it...
Lee TGD

I still use Talc and clear dope...Put it on, sand 95% of it off....I do it two or three times but always sand most of it off up thru 400..then color sand the paint thru 600...Then 3M rubbing compound then Mirror Glaze Anti-swirl, then wax.....then let it get covered with oil, dirt and grass clippings....

crumble up some white styrofoam, pour dope over it and start mixing. adjust the mixture by adding styro or dope til the consistency is something like elmer's white glue. paint it on fairly thin and sand when dry. i used this on my OHLG wings to waterproof and chain link fence proof them. pretty light, too.

Gary,

Go get some Duplicolor Scratch and Dent Filling primer, they may have changed the name but it a heavy bodied primer like feather fill that builds fast. On my play airplanes It only takes 2 good coats to fill the majority of the grain. Put on the first one, sand it nearly off, put on the second and smooth over with 400 to a sheen, ready for paint. It works even better over tissue, silkspan or silk. Oh yeah, if you don't lay it on too heavy (which you don't need to do anyway) its ready to sand in about 20 minutes if the humidity is real high. More of you guys should try this stuff, I've been using it for 5 years now and have had a model front row at Brodaks. Its light, fairly cheap, dope sticks to it well and does a much better job then anything else I've used short of automotive feather fill.

The Brodak primer works great for me. I use a method specified, I think, by a Brodak pamphlet stuffed in one of the kits. Four coats of clear thinned half and half on the sanded out naked balsa. Sand lightly between coats. Then damp silkspan applied with thinned clear on top, pushed through the fibers to attach and smooth. Two coats of thinned sealer sanded smooth between coats on top of the silkspan. In my experience it's almost impossible to fill balsa grain with dope without using silkspan. Using silkspan, however, makes for a strong good looking structure that is light. I believe it's quite a bit lighter than epoxy or resin filled balsa.

Gary,
Did you put it straight on the bare wood? If so, Sanding sealer isn't going to do much good until you get a ton of coats on.
It is great when you use it over clear dope filled silkspan.
Raw balsa needs to be covered with silkspan to really get rid of all the grain.
If you just want to get most of it out, use auto primer after you have applied and sanded several coats of clear, sanded also.
The spackling/sheet rock mud method wotks to a degree but is heavier overall.
A LIGHT finish depends on not only filling the low spots, but bringing down the high spots, too. Block sanding is the only way to do that, ask Mr. '69 BATS! hahahaha
Filling the grain starts with the first coat of clear, whether dope or otherwise.
Bill <><

I'd bet that some wise-guy at SIG put extra sand in Gary's bottle of Sand and Sealer. It sounds like this could become the World's Heaviest Fancherized-Twister, if it isn't already. Steve

Gary,

It sounds like you are trying to put way too much on at one time and it really isn't going to fill bare wood, no matter how much or how many coats you put on. You have to cover the bare wood with silkspan and put it on with in very light coats. Sanding in between coats and only leave on enough to fill the silkspan or it's going to add a ton of weight and most of all, be patient!

There is an art to learning how to build and finish, and slapping things together and sloshing a finish on just ain't goiing produce the kind of finish you're after.

What works quite well is nitrate clear and J&J talcum powder (or whatever is the cheapest store brand). Nitrate is sticky, fills well, shrinks little, is lighter in weight, and adheres well. In spite of bad experiences by some folks, it has always worked beautifully for me with dope, lacquer, or epoxy color over it.

Believe it or not, Krylon auto sanding sealer (I use the gray stuff) also works quite well. The secret is to wet sand it with Prepsol, and sand almost all of it away. But it transforms silkspan quite magically, and color coats stick to it. It fills extremely quickly, and you sand almost all the rest away.

Regardless of what you are using to finish silkspan, it will have to be filled. So, you can do it in one or two coats, or ten coats. The material has to be filled. Weight should be about the same for the same level of finish.

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"Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing." -Walt Kelly

"

One of the techniques that works for me with any dope/dope based filler, is to allow plenty of time to dry....3 days or more prior to sanding and/or additional coats. Sand too soon and it's still shrinking....low spots will continue to develop. Additional coats melt the previous coats and really don't do much good.....but great for adding weight! I like the dope and silkspan method.....but a good finish takes a lot of time and is a lot of work. No shortcuts!

Many of the previous hints apply as well. Seems wasteful, but what really is going on is that you're progressively filling in the low spots while sanding away MOST of the dope you put on!

Good luck!