:blush:
Well, I got it from someone here on the boards, here or at YORF or RP...
I tried it out really quick and I found it to be about the best thing I've seen since CA... better in a lot of ways. I used to use quite a bit of CA in model railroading but with rockets, not so much. I've found it's negatives generally outweigh it's positives, for rocket use anyway...
UNLESS you're talking about using it to harden balsa, THEN I'm 110% supportive of CA.
I'm glad the CA tacking of your fins is working for you AC. I would like to make one suggestion...
Give the "double glue joint" a try and lemme know what you think. If you don't want to try it on an actual kit, glue some spare balsa 'fins' (bits of scrap) to a piece of scrap rocket tubing, or a paper towel tube. I REALLY think you'll like it!
I first read about it in G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry", the "Bible" of the hobby.... back in junior high I read that thing cover to cover probably two dozen times at least. And again in high school... so much so that the school library's copy got 'lost' somewhere in my stuff and I had to pay to replace it-- when I found it a few months later I kept it, since it wasn't in print at the time... at least from vendors I could access... anyway, I absorbed everything in there, but I glossed over the 'double glue joint' and brushed it aside as 'old school nonsense'... how could putting glue on the root edge of the fin and on the tube line, letting it DRY, and then putting a second swipe of glue on them both AGAIN and THEN joining the fin to the tube POSSIBLY be stronger or FASTER than slobbering on a thick gooey layer of Elmer's carpenter's glue and propping the rocket and fin up overnight to dry, hoping it stayed straight and the glue didn't run into rivers and pools of crust like solidified liquid-hot MAG-MA... (to quote Dr. Evil :dark
Sounds perfectly reasonable to a kid, doesn't it??
Well, enter the older and wiser BAR, grasshopper... willing to try new things and give the benefit of the doubt. BINGO!!! DOUBLE GLUE JOINTS ROCK!!!!
Here's what you do... apply some yellow wood glue to the roots of your fins (or the roots of your scrap balsa 'fins' if you experiment with it) and using the old 'doorjamb trick' (or your angle rule) lay out your fin lines on your rocket (or scrap tube) and apply a little line of glue to the fin line. Spread it gently on both fin edge and tube line with your finger-- it doesn't take a huge amount, just a smooth thin layer on both. Prop the fins up to dry root edge up. It shouldn't take over 30 minutes or so-- the balsa tends to drink the water in from the glue rather quickly, and if you lightly sand off the glassine layer from the tube line, the paper tube will suck up the water from the glue as well, drawing the glue into the paper and balsa as it goes. Once the thin layer has pretty well dried (doesn't have to be rock-hard, just firm yet maybe still a little tacky...) Apply another thin layer to both parts on top of the existing glue layer, a THIN swipe will do; doesn't require much at all. Once you apply that, simply join the fin to the tube like you've done with CA... line it up carefully and press it together. The glue will 'grab' and lock the fin to the tube just as well as CA will-- in 10-20 seconds it'll be 'dry' and the fin will be securely locked to the tube, without the brittleness of CA and with MUCH better adhesion and penetration of the yellow glue into and BETWEEN the joined materials (paper and balsa) than you get with the surface application of yellow glue after you've tacked the fins on with CA. Let it dry 30 minutes or so (an hour or overnight if you're inclined-- it doesn't hurt only helps) and then you're ready to go directly over it with your Titebond Moulding and Trim Glue for the fillets... TMTG is thickened white glue, so it's TOTALLY compatible with the yellow glue. The yellow glue has a bit more strength for wood joints, and I always use it for fin to tube joints. Double glue joints make it just as handy to use Yellow Carpenter's glue as it is to use CA, without the drawbacks of CA becoming brittle and having low shear strength, and CA 'seals' the pores of the wood whereever it's applied, preventing the yellow glue from penetrating the wood and doing it's job.
Give it a shot-- you've got nothing to lose... I REALLY think you'll like it, or I wouldn't recommend it.
Here's another tip that makes it SUPER easy to do on your rockets-- take an old egg carton, invert it, and slash each of the egg cups with your hobby knife from the center of the tray to the outside, perpendicular to the long axis of the egg carton. (THis is a FOAM egg carton I'm speaking of- they cut like butter with a hobby knife-- the paper ones are harder). Now you have a handy-dandy holder for all your fins and the rocket tube itself as you apply the glue and set them aside to dry for a few minutes before applying the second layer of glue and sticking the fins on. Apply glue to each fin root, and stick it into the cut in the egg cup-- it will deform slightly and "Clamp" each fin root edge up nice and level so the glue can dry. The 'trough' or trench between the egg cups works like a champ to hold the body tube with the glue-applied fin end overhanging the end so the glue lines on the BT can dry for the double-glue joints.
Works like a champ! OL JR
