matchlessaero

Began covering the Caudron the other night. I am using 3 colors of my favorite covering material-MoneyCote. I have been using this stuff for better than 15 years with plenty of good success and service.

Unfortunately, I have an issue I can't quite figure out.... While covering, I covered it as usual with a crisscross tightening pattern, tacking it in the corners, pulling tight the edges and sealing them and then shrinking the covering tight through the middle to bring the surface tight. (I must have done this a hundred times before).
After finishing the wing, I came back to it a couple minutes later, and found that the covering had loosened...? Some wrinkles here and there, and some bubbling up in a few areas.....

I have now re-tightened the covering again 6 times (using a heat gun and the iron) and the bottom seems to be staying somewhat tight. The top is not yet staying tight though.

Has anyone had a similar situation?

Bipe Flyer

I've noticed this on a couple of planes. On one plane the white would sag while the yellow and metallic plum were fine. Black is bad in the sun for obvious reasons. I mostly use Ultracote now.

Maybe it's a bad roll or you didn't have the wood absolutely clean before you applied the Monokote.

LoneRanger

My Feedback: (1)

that is a bummer, i would agree, try to remove the whole piece and use a new one, use a tack cloth or something to make sure it's clean~


L.R.

goldguy

Bipe Flyer is right, I have found that different colors take different heat settings when it comes to applying Monokote. I have been using MK since it's invention, when it was a stick on material and called Monokote. When it was changed to an iron on material it became Super Monokote. It was much more like a foil back then and was much better, as now it is made of a softer material. Over the last few years I bought two rolls that were defective and returned them. The glue/color layer separated when heat was applied and the material was very brittle.

Strat2003

My Feedback: (1)

Could the covering be distorting the structure? I've had something like that happen when I used MonoKote on light structures not intended for that kind of covering..wrinkles showed up in the corners a little while after it was shrunk.

johnvb-RCU

My Feedback: (1)

I had a similar thing happen covering a smallish wing with Monokote. I found using a heat gun to shrink the centre was loosening the edges - the heat 'spray' was too wide. Changed to an iron to shrink and the problem went away.

2fast4u

My Feedback: (5)

On little planes, when using Monokote, I always try to cover both sides as tight as I can, then start shrinking it down.

Whenever that has happened to me it has been a flex or twist in the structure causing the slack.

Good luck. I hope you resolve it soon.

matchlessaero

I had many of the same thoughts/experiences as well.

Interesting thing is that the same covering did not act the same on the fuse.....

Well, on a good note, the last shrinking I did seems to have taken pretty well. Most of the 'bad' spots have gone away. Only a couple to eliminate.

BTW, I had the same concerns about the wing flexing, however, this is about the stiffest 1/2A wing I have ever built. I used a much heavier grade of foam when cutting the cores, and some top grade contest balsa for the skins and trailing edge.... Very difficult to flex.