Before gluing on the tail cone and spraying primer, the shoulder was sanded down to the same outside diameter of the body tube.
Card board to plastic glue joints can be weak. The Fabri-Tac glue was bought for another purpose, fabric gluing obviously. The Fabri-Tac glue has acetone in it, acetone will break down the plastic a bit.
Using this glue reminds me of old style plastic glue, when you pull the bottle away there are a thin string of glue floating around.
I don't know how this glue will hold up long term. So far, it's a strong bond.
On the forums I see a lot of builders using CA on body tube ends. Some claim it will prevent a zipper. Some dried CA glue probably won't stop a too long length of Kevlar from cutting through a tube.I do this to seal the ends, I don't go deep into the tube.
The CA glue hardens the tube and lets you sand down the fuzzies for a cleaner, sharper finished tube end.
I bought a bottle of Fabri-Tac but I haven't gotten the nerve yet to try it on a motor mount. Does it dry pretty solid or does it stay a little gooey like Aleen's Tacky Glue?
ReplyDeleteHi Lonnie,
DeleteIt dries hard and solid like the old tube plastic glues used to. I using it here to adhere plastic to balsa and plastic to body tubes. I'd still use white or carpenter's yellow glue for general rocket building.
I do the CA on the tube ends too, and only recently did it on the Kevlar end of the tube for my Spitfire. It's doubtful that CA will stop zippering. Mostly I do it on the motor end of the motor mount tube to help keep the edge of the tube from getting too beat up from repeated loadings. I'm sure it helps a little bit there.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe,
DeleteIt does help there. Especially on the thin yellow Quest engine mount tubes and Estes BT-20 and BT-50 tubes.