Earlier this week, Sunday night, I sat down to glue on the fins to my Fliskits Rose-a-Roc and was using the Double Glue Method. After putting Elmers white glue on the fin root edges, pressing them into the body tube, and then setting them down to mostly dry, I noticed a problem with one of the rotor blades.
Usually when double gluing I give the fins about 5-10 minutes and they still show a little white in the glue, so I know they're not completely dry. Then I add more glue and stick them in place and they pretty much hold tight immediately.
This time, however, the problem with the rotor blade had me stumped (one of the hinge wires broke after I'd glued together the three sections of the hinge assembly and filled all the holes with glue) and I didn't want to put the fins on until I'd figured out what to do.
Last night, three days after starting the double glue, I had time to get back to it and managed to fix the hinge and then resumed with the fin gluing. The glue on the first step had completely dried and I wasn't sure if it would work well or not if I continued. I figured I'd give it a shot and if it didn't work I could always sand off the glue and start over. At the VERY worst I'd have to cut new fins from scrap balsa.
Success! Apparently the glue can completely dry in between steps and it's not a problem. The fins grabbed hold of the body tube immediately and as soon as I wiped off the excess I was able to stand the rocket on the fins and they held the weight. I was very surprised and impressed that this method worked with that long of a delay.
I'm sure I'm late to this knowledge, and most builders on this forum already knew that would happen, but I felt like sharing just in case it helped someone else.
Usually when double gluing I give the fins about 5-10 minutes and they still show a little white in the glue, so I know they're not completely dry. Then I add more glue and stick them in place and they pretty much hold tight immediately.
This time, however, the problem with the rotor blade had me stumped (one of the hinge wires broke after I'd glued together the three sections of the hinge assembly and filled all the holes with glue) and I didn't want to put the fins on until I'd figured out what to do.
Last night, three days after starting the double glue, I had time to get back to it and managed to fix the hinge and then resumed with the fin gluing. The glue on the first step had completely dried and I wasn't sure if it would work well or not if I continued. I figured I'd give it a shot and if it didn't work I could always sand off the glue and start over. At the VERY worst I'd have to cut new fins from scrap balsa.
Success! Apparently the glue can completely dry in between steps and it's not a problem. The fins grabbed hold of the body tube immediately and as soon as I wiped off the excess I was able to stand the rocket on the fins and they held the weight. I was very surprised and impressed that this method worked with that long of a delay.
I'm sure I'm late to this knowledge, and most builders on this forum already knew that would happen, but I felt like sharing just in case it helped someone else.