The Shop-Vac Balsa Nose Cone Filling Method.

[rokitflite]

So, a fun thing I tried that didn't NOT work...

Devastated by the impending loss of Semroc, I ordered a bunch of their nose cones. The nose cones arrived 20 minutes after I ordered them which was actually a little slow for the Semroc crew. They were gorgeous as usual, and turned out of the lightest and fluffiest balsa ever. I think the BT-60 ones were like .005 grams each. I use Z-Poxy finishing epoxy as a filler now, and I wanted to get that stuff to soak into the wood as much as possible to harden it up a bit. An idea struck me... PULL the epoxy into the pores of the wood! So I put one layer of shiny Scotch tape on the shoulder, and inserted it almost all the way into a section of BT-60. Using a foam brush, I applied a thick coat of finishing epoxy on the cone. Then I hooked my Shop-Vac to the other end of the tube and turned it on for a moment. Instantly, much of the smooth epoxy finish showed pores once again. I repeated this process several times. I unplugged the vacuum from the BT-60 and pushed the nose cone out from behind, only handling the shoulder, I removed the Scotch tape and let it set up over night. After 5 minutes of sanding this morning I had a hard smooth cone. I don't know exactly how much of the epoxy got into the cone, but there were a few spots on the base where you could feel that the epoxy was pulled all the way through. I ordered more cones :grin:

Next time I'm gonna heat the epoxy coated cone with a hair dryer to make the epoxy even thinner. And I will weigh it before and after to help determine exactly how much was sucked into the wood.


Whatever filling method you use, if you want to get the sealer further into the wood, this method seems to have worked well!

 

[TopRamen]

That's pretty cool.

 

[CarVac]

Huh. That's sure to make a nice hard surface.

 

[kjohnson]

Neat idea.

kj

 

[Micromeister]

Very nifty idea Scott.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Have you tried penetrating epoxy? It is water thin and will soak into just about any wood. Balsa would probably soak it up like a sponge. I have some at home. I'll break it out and try it on a piece of balsa this weekend.

https://www.westmarine.com/boatlife--git-rot-penetrating-epoxy--P004_120_001_009

 

[rokitflite]

Have you tried penetrating epoxy? It is water thin and will soak into just about any wood. Balsa would probably soak it up like a sponge. I have some at home. I'll break it out and try it on a piece of balsa this weekend.

https://www.westmarine.com/boatlife--git-rot-penetrating-epoxy--P004_120_001_009

Sounds cool! Let us know the results!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I tried sealing a balsa nose cone with the penetrating epoxy over the weekend. I hadn't used it ~15 years. I was shocked to see that it hadn't hardened up or gone bad. The instructions say that it takes 24 hours to cure (to touch) and a full week before it is completely cured. I brushed on a thin coat and it looks pretty good. It didn't seem to penetrate into the wood as much as I thought it would, but I'll try sanding it tonight and see how it looks.

One major benefit is that it doesn't stink anywhere near as bad as CA and doesn't make your eyes water if you get too close.

 

[bill_s]

I WEST'd a nose cone recently ... seemed like it didn't soak in some places and then I painted it -- NO paint absorption, I could have gone with 1 coat almost. Just painting it would have added 3 times as much weight. Incidently I saw somewhere someone said use sanding sealer before WEST -- apparently they don't realize WEST was created to seal and make wood predictable.

 

[rokitflite]

I tried sealing a balsa nose cone with the penetrating epoxy over the weekend. I hadn't used it ~15 years. I was shocked to see that it hadn't hardened up or gone bad. The instructions say that it takes 24 hours to cure (to touch) and a full week before it is completely cured. I brushed on a thin coat and it looks pretty good. It didn't seem to penetrate into the wood as much as I thought it would, but I'll try sanding it tonight and see how it looks.

One major benefit is that it doesn't stink anywhere near as bad as CA and doesn't make your eyes water if you get too close.

Darn :-(... But that stuff still sounds cool! I'm gonna pick some up at some point and try it with the Shop-Vac. Thanks for reporting back!!!

 

[dave carver]

Use laquer thinner or acetone in the epoxy mix. Just enough to make the mix "watery". They really soak in then and the epoxy won't go off until the thinner has "gone off". The thinner stops the reaction from happening, I use it to soak luan door skin fins as well as nosecones, makes them tougher than you can imagine.