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Friday, June 28, 2024

Enerjet by Aerotech Initiator Build, Part 4, Body Tube Bubbles



Body tubes are not what they once were. 
This is not blaming Aerotech or Quest. 
The supplier - Euclid/Paramount make the tubes for all vendors. When Paramount bought Euclid, the quality dropped. 

There were a few raised air bubbles that will show thru on the finished model. They don't show in the photograph but you can feel the raised area with a fingertip. I marked the raised areas with pencil.
I had mixed results using the technique shown here.
I slit the outer white layer with a sharp knife.

A bead of medium super glue was run over the slit. A few seconds for the CA glue to run into and spread out under the slit.
Before it set up, the excess was wiped off.



As the glue dried, 
A Sharpie barrel was quickly rolled back and forth over the glued slit. 


Here you can see where the glue has seeped under and around the slit.
This closed up the bubble pulling the raised center area down and onto the tube.

Most all of the bubbles and slits will disappear when filler/primer is sprayed then sanded. A few of the bubbles needed a second treatment with the Super Glue.

2 comments:

  1. It's scary how much of the hobby is dependent on one vendor for such a critical part.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Neil,
      Yep, I've ordered body tubes in bulk before - Since Paramount took over Euclid - Some of the recent tubes weren't useable. I have to go through them,
      pick out the bad ones. About one out of five are bad.

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