Stabilizer hinges

Been having a great deal of trouble cutting in and then gluing in hinges to stabilzers. Either cut up out of balsa and then get too much glue to wick into hinge area- becomes to stiff. Any help appreciated.

Mike,

Try this, get a small jar lid, put some petroleum jelly in it.
Melt it so that it is runny. Take you hinges and fold them in half. Dip the barrel only into the jelly, let it cool, now being careful not to smear the jelly onto the hinge flaps, you can glue them into Stabs, Elevator or whatever without having them bind. You can use any type glue to fasten them with, even epoxy if you like. Personally, I like the water resistant polyurethane type glues myself for installing hinges. With a little judicious use of water you can keep it from setting up in the hinge barrels and binding. Hope this is of some help.

Jim's comments about the Petroleum Jelly are essential. Do not use oil as it will run into the wood and mess up the finish later on.

It sounds like you need help in cutting the slots. If you use a DuBro or Carl Goldberg hinge cutting tool, the guide will help you cut the slot straight into the wood, and then the pick will help widen the slot so the hinge will fit in. If your stabilizer is too thin (some of the older, classic models) then it makes it more difficult to cut the slot straight. If you are not worried about classic requirements (not going to enter the model in a contest) you can make the stabilizer out of a little thicker material. The extra stiffness will improve the model's flight characteristics as well. It also helps to choose relatively thin hinges. We like the DuBro barrel hinges. We have had several other brands fail in flight, but have not lost a DuBro yet. Of course, Matt puts a lot of them on and doubles them at the tip of the flap.