Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Titebond Molding and Trim Glue Part 3

I'm building the Quest Striker AGM and the Estes Mini Honest John right now.

The Striker fins got a single Titebond Molding and Trim Glue fillet (top picture) the HoJo got multiple layers of Elmer's white glue.

While many builders have had success with the Titebond M&TG, I didn't see any real advantage to using it.
Some say it doesn't shrink when drying. On the Striker fillets, it looked the same as one dried fillet coat of Elmer's white glue.

But, the Titebone M&TG doesn't run.
You could almost have the fillets dry with the rocket standing upright on the fins.

Here's the white glue fin fillets on the Estes Mini Honest John. I did three fillet coats.
Some people won't want to take the time for three fillet applications. It seems that first white glue fillet takes too long to dry.
Let the first fillet dry completely as normal.
But, the second fillet takes half the time to dry as the first. You are building up the fillet surface adding a coat to the already dried first pass.
The third fillet takes even less time to dry.

Gap filling? Yes, TM&TG does help fill a root edge gap. You could see less bubbles in a launch lug fillet using the Titebond M&TG.
But, three or four white glue fillets will fill the bubbles at the launch lug.

The Titebond M&TG fillet had dried ridges at the outside edges of the fillet. Even using a wet finger to smooth the fillet, the Titebond M&TG skinned over faster than regular white glue did, leaving the ridges.
Applying fillets with white glue, I was able to smooth over the glue multiple times and remove the excess without it setting up. For me, the dried white glue fillets were smoother.

If I were building MPR rockets I would use epoxy for fillets. On my LPR rockets I'll use the Elmer's white glue for now.
Using epoxy requires multiple mixes to get fillets on both sides of all fins.

I'm not trying to tell anyone my methods are for everybody. The Titebond M&TG didn't give the results I get from white glue.
Use whatever works best for you!

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