Skylark, that 'juice' goes a long long ways. I've used it now on 3 or 4 planes and it still looks like a new full bottle! A drop will cover an elephant! It leaves this really thin film that is just barely what I would call beginning to be wet. I'm amazed every time that so little activates the glue and it seems to be just as good as heat. On my Merlyn, those tip graphics having the curves to them, obviously could follow a rib. Out came the juice. This was the biggest application over and I was worried, but to no avail. I'm not sure I have any bubbles in that application.

Yes, I have used the pin method on bubbles often. But I'm still amazed at how it all seems to fall into place after a day or few at the field in the sun.

I'm fairly new to this hobby... I think 4 years now. I have never done the dope method. I do have one Coverite fabric job and then there is my one project that I picked up midstream which is getting Stits covering. Now, I absolutely love that stuff! It is more expensive and more time consuming and in the end requires painting, but my covering is perfect! I'm using the stitching tapes and then the tapes over all seams. It is more steps but wow the end result is very nice and very tough. The true scale look of course is a bonus. It is a bit heavier though... for a glider... I suppose it might be right for a Minimoa or something.

As for irons, I got a couple of covering irons. The coverite iron is awesome and the variable temp dial is very accurate. I needed this to do the Stits as it is very heat sensitive. I had a Hanger 9 iron... there is no comparison. I also at the same time picked up one of those trim irons and it is fantastic. It will get into those tight corners, or into places like cutouts for servo bays. I use it in particular for the pre-covering bits I do before covering. Like inside corners around the tail, or concave areas... it has a flat and a rounded shoe with it.

I've pretty much decided that Monocote is my favorite plastic covering. It seems to hold up to higher heat/shrinkage than the others I have tried. I have not yet tried any Coverite other than the fabric type, so I can't be a fair judge on that one.

In the meantime... my Merlyn build. Having the short roll of covering and needing to get that rectified, I moved on to working on the fuse. So, motor time! I have two 4130s, one AXI and one no name. The no name having a few less options but the one option I needed with this installation, it was selected as the power source. I figure for a couple of 15 or 30 second power ups for an entire flight, it will be just fine. So, I laid out my cut around the nose and did that. Then the boring. I bought a shouldered bearing for up front. So, there was the drilling to match the diameter of the bearing and then a larger redrill so flange can set into the nose block a bit. I plan to use two screws, the heads will catch the flange, to hold the bearing into the nose block. There will be no pulling or pushing on this bearing, only torsional force. Next, I pull the shaft on the motor. I bought a piece of 6mm drill rod to match the motor shaft and of course this nose bearing is 6mm. The idea... build a long motor shaft. And in spite of not being about to measure any difference between the drill rod and the motor shaft, the drill rod was too large to slide into the motor or the nose bearing. I think we are talking like 0.0005" oversized. So, I chucked it up on my drill and just spun it up while holding sand paper around it. Back and forth, test, back and forth test... and you had to let it cool down to get a true test as we are talking a tiny amount. I used 120g and then 220G and then 600G each time to get a smooth finish. After the second 18v battery discharged and at the start of the third, it finally got to the right size. So, I have a very nice fitting shaft which a polished finish that looks pretty much like what came from the factory. This whole ordeal was a bit of a surprise, but the end result 'measures' very true.

Then sometime last night I started wondering if I had ordered a 5mm or 6mm Aeronaut prop adaptor... and sure enough I ordered a 5mm one (and it came this morning), so I ordered the 6mm one last night. Also is a this big honkin Aeronaut 17x11 folder. That's going to be just a bit scarey during a hand launch! Meanwhile, back to the motor. I built my firewall and have it all bolted up. Now I need to do the blocks inside the fuse which will be in front of this firewall. Those blocks will have at least a couple of T-nuts and maybe a pin or two. The firewall will slide into place behind these blocks and the attach with bolts to those T-nuts. The goal here is to loosen the prop adaptor and remove the prop system, take out a couple or three bolts from the firewall and be able to pull the whole motor/power system. I'll later build another firewall replacement, which will hold ballast and tow release and build a nose cone to replace the prop system and have a non-powered glider ready for tow.

Anyway, not a lot of apparent progress last night, but there was a lot of figuring, thinking and time consuming little steps. I'm pretty happy with where it seems to be headed. Yes, 'seems to be' as I know that sometimes the gremlins and unforeseen seem to haunt me.