Filling/sealing balsa with ca

[user 13]

Ok, anyone have any tips? I've always sealed my balsa with sanding sealer but after reading about people using ca glue I'm curious. I have some thin ca, do I just brush it on and then sand it?

Thanks

Mark

 

[powderburner]

I finish all sanding/airfoiling on the fins before using CA.
And I complete all fin/body attachments and fillets.

But after that, I swab on the cheap CA (little tubes from the dollar store) using a Qtip. It doesn't take much of a covering to seal most of the balsa.

After the CA cures I do a light sanding with a few grades of sandpaper and then fill the remaining grain roughness with lightweight spackle. Sand again and spackle again until satisfied with surface smoothness, and then prime and sand some more. (Eventually I use paint.)

 

[thaddeus]

I recently tried this on a scrap piece of balsa. I found that it added no extra strength and didn't sand down as nice as good old sanding sealer. I'm sticking with the tried and true! Yeah, it takes longer, but I enjoy the sanding part!

 

[snede2112]

I have not tried this but the June Apogee newsletter had a section about using ca to fill and seal balsa.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/downloads/Newsletter186.pdf

 

[user 13]

Thanks for the tips guys!