Nils?....Anybody?....

WEll I nearly tore the outboard wing completely off the Ukey 40 last nite. Momemtary flash of stupidity, or lack of concentration.

Actually, I think the elevator tape hinge that came on the ukey let go at the top of the last inside part of the horiz. 8. It went in nearly vertical. Snapped fuse, and wing seperation.

Question?? What is the best glue for re-attaching the styrofoam wing? I've heard of something called Gorilla Glue that expands somewhat as it cures. Is this the right stuff? Is it a Hobby product or would it be available at Lowew's or ACo?

The fuse fix is no problem, but I havent had much experience with styrofoam.

Thanks

Crash Curt

LAST EDITED ON Jul-20-01 AT 07:25 AM (EST)

>WEll I nearly tore the outboard
>wing completely off the Ukey
>40 last nite. Momemtary
>flash of stupidity, or lack
>of concentration.

NEARLY tore it off? Ah, that's the rub. Completely off and a clean separation makes it easy. Half off and dangling is hard. Facing the same problem, I drank two beers, got out the blades, and surgically removed it. I couldn't see any way to get any adhesive where it needed to be without a total removal. Makes you want to make the original construction a little weak, so you will get a clean separation in a crash. I am only half joking.

>Actually, I think the elevator tape
>hinge that came on the
>ukey let go at the
>top of the last inside
>part of the horiz. 8.
> It went in nearly
>vertical.

Joe gave me a hard time for replacing the tape with real hinges during the original construction. He says the tape works well, and is good for 500 flights or so. May be true, but it didn't look right to me, so I swapped it out. Some times you can just smell problems lurking.

>Question?? What is the best glue
>for re-attaching the styrofoam wing?
> I've heard of something
>called Gorilla Glue that expands
>somewhat as it cures.
>Is this the right stuff?
> Is it a Hobby
>product or would it be
>available at Lowew's or ACo?

Our local Lowes carries 90 minute epoxy and 5 minute epoxy (nothing in between), which at first annoyed me. Looking at the directions on the Gorilla Glue (which I bought) scared me, so I went with the 90 epoxy, and it has held up fine. Gives a lot of swirling and poking time.

(Edit -- Yes, our Lowe's carries Gorilla Glue, which is where I got it.)

Larry, mine was about 50% loose after three flights. I guessed that the Rustoleum spray paint reacted with the elevator tape's adhesive...whatever. Pulled it the rest of the way off, and did a cloth-hinge-with-Ambroid job on it. Don't you love it?

LAST EDITED ON Jul-20-01 AT 08:32 AM (EST)

I have had great success with Gorilla Glue but there are a few cautions. It really expands so a little will go a long way. The advantage of the expansion is that it gets into all the little nooks that a blown foam wing has. Follow the directions and spray some water on the foam - it speeds up the set. Be sure to clamp the wing in place or it will push it out of position as it expands. I use several long rubber bands to hold the wing to the body. If you do get a "wart" just allow it to set and then trim it off. I'v even used a hacksaw blade to trim when I got over generous with the glue. Finally - don't get any on your hands or if you do wipe it off with a solvent. Once it sets on your hands it will take a week to wear off and you will look like dirty hands all the time (Yes - from experience) It's also much lighter than epoxy. I have even tried using it to set doublers and motor mounts on a foamie - still going strong but I think I'll stick with epoxy for that in the future.

Crash Curt:
As you might already know, Nils strongly suggests buttressing the tape hinges with figure eight hinges made of carpet thread, dental floss or those 1/2A dacron lines that are out there. Of course, there is also Larry's suggestion of simply replacing the tape hinges with conventional hinges. Nils' suggestion has the advantage in your situation, however, of being easily added without requiring a replacement of the gorgeous U-Key finish that you already have on your stab and elevator. I opted for Nils' approach. The proof of this choice is yet to come.

Gorilla glue is similiar to ProBond. The only problem to be aware of is that is has odorless fumes which can trigger an asthma attack. This happened to me. So use it with plenty of ventilation, or use it outdoors.

Ed --

For the most part, modellers are immune to nitrobenzene, nitromethane, and all adhesive fumes. We thrive on them.

I use 5 minute epoxy to fix about everything on my Ukey. If the wing breaks only partway off sometimes I use non-stinky CA. I poke the tip of the bottle into the crack & give it a glurg of medium, then work the crack open & shut until it seems spread around. Sometimes I put clear packing tape over the repair, sometimes I don't bother. I haven't tried the gorilla glue. The Ukey I'm flying has been stuck back together so many times I couldn't care less what it looks like. It still flys pretty good.
Nils

THanks Guys:

The wing hinged outward around the LE point--tore out a really ragged chunk still attached to the aft dowel. The epoxy will work but I wanted to make sure all of the gaps are filled--I left alot of little white tufts of foam Blowin in da breeze!!

The way this one flies in the wind, I was thinking of trying some ballast in one ounce increments to see if slightly higher wing loading might make it a bit more solid. Its in at about 9.5 oz/sq ft now.

I'll let you know what I use and how it goes.