Friday, September 2, 2011

260 Space Booster Build Part 15 Clear Fin Glue Test

I cut a 4" section of the clear fluorescent light protection tube for fin gluing practice. I wanted to find the best way to adhere the thin fin material.

Going back to the ole Estes Gemini Titan instructions, you would use clear dope to glue the fins.

I applied a line of dope to the root edge of a practice piece with a Q-tip. This gave me good control of the flow of the dope.

When set on the clear tube, it did adhere pretty well.

Using more practice pieces, I tried other methods.
We didn't have Super Glues when the Gemini Titan and Thor Agena kits first came out. I tried thin and medium CA fillets.
The thin CA fillet worked okay, but the medium CA fogged up the root edge when it dried.



I even tried clear "invisible" tape pushed into the root edge. It wasn't invisible. But applied to both sides, it had the strongest joint.




In the end, I'll probably go the old Estes route.
Clear dope on the root edge, then a clear dope fillet applied with a Q-tip or small brush.
The clear dope fillets looked the best, it did dry transparent and without fogging up the plastic.
These clear fins will probably pop off on a hard landing, just like they used to on my Estes Thor Agena B.

No comments:

Post a Comment