Thursday, June 27, 2013

Fixing the Aerospace Plane Canopy TIPS


I was prepping the recent Quest Aerospace Plane for an upcoming launch and the canopy popped off!
It was a clean separation, none of the paper shroud was torn telling me the bond wasn't good.
The bottom edge of the canopy still had some plastic glue on it.
The canopy bottom edge was lightly sanded giving a smoothed rough surface for better adhesion.

The aeroshoud had a glossy surface preventing the glue from soaking in.
The surface was scraped with the tip of my blade just inside the positioning line. Scrape enough to dull the surface but not thin the cardstock.


Plastic glue was applied and the shroud pressed back into position.

Thin CA followed. I just had to touch the end of the Teflon tube and the thin glue ran under the edge.
You don't have to squeeze out thin CA, turn over the bottle and it should run down the tube and "wick" itself under the seam.


Always have a paper towel handy when you use thin CA. It sometimes  runs where it shouldn't.

TIP: After using CA, hold the bottle up and squeeze the tip into a paper towel. This clears the Teflon tube and it will be clear the next time you use it.
TIP: Store your opened Super Glues in the refrigerator (not the freezer) and it will last much longer!

No comments:

Post a Comment