I don’t want to start another “glue war” but this surprised me. In a good way.
Yet another fin popped off of the Estes Oracle camera rocket after this big, tough bird landed on a patch of concrete. I had been gluing the plastic fins back onto the plastic bottom of the rocket with good, old Testors model airplane glue (plastic cement).
The fins kept popping off on even moderately hard landings.
This time I tried something different. I sanded the root edge of the fin to roughen it up. I sanded the slot on the plastic bottom of the rocket, and around it, to roughen up that surface, too.
Then I glued the fin on with Devcon “2 ton, 30 minute epoxy”. I must admit I wasn’t going for aesthetics. I slathered on the epoxy. I let it cure for 24 hours. I think that sucker is on there pretty good now. See pics.
I did not think epoxy would work well on a plastic to plastic bond, but apparently it does if you roughen up the parts to be joined with sandpaper first.
Yet another fin popped off of the Estes Oracle camera rocket after this big, tough bird landed on a patch of concrete. I had been gluing the plastic fins back onto the plastic bottom of the rocket with good, old Testors model airplane glue (plastic cement).
The fins kept popping off on even moderately hard landings.
This time I tried something different. I sanded the root edge of the fin to roughen it up. I sanded the slot on the plastic bottom of the rocket, and around it, to roughen up that surface, too.
Then I glued the fin on with Devcon “2 ton, 30 minute epoxy”. I must admit I wasn’t going for aesthetics. I slathered on the epoxy. I let it cure for 24 hours. I think that sucker is on there pretty good now. See pics.
I did not think epoxy would work well on a plastic to plastic bond, but apparently it does if you roughen up the parts to be joined with sandpaper first.