RCU Forums - View Single Post - servo glue ?
Thread: servo glue ?
View Single Post
Old 05-14-2012, 08:15 AM
  #12  
da Rock
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Near Pfafftown NC
Posts: 11,517
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
Default RE: servo glue ?

The glider is an Avia by TopModelCZ. The installation of the servos in the wing is custom, with a capital 'C'. They don't exactly shoe horn in but close.

The servos mount on their side and are exactly the thickness of the wing where they are positioned. Using any servo that is thicker than the couple they recommend means the servo hatches won't seat flat. Thos hatches are actually covers that were vacu-formed to shape. They are molded to fit and are glued in place. They're not strong enough to support servo blocks. No room or provision for screwing down, the concept applied to most of the design. Also, TopModelCZ provides cast 'blocks' that glue inside the compartment to the inside top of the wing that have slots the servo's mounting flanges fit exactly. The flanges are snugly enclosed. There is no provision for screws through the flange holes and no expectation of doing that kind of mounting at all. To do so, you'd have to mount blocks on the hatch covers and have a way to mount the hatch covers. Needless to say, the provided covers aren't up to that task.

The entire design of the Avia seems to be for absolute, no holds barred weight reduction. TopModelCZ's picture "instruction sheet" shows a picture of the servos being 5 minute epoxied into the compartment. Trust me, if you did that, getting them out with a heat gun would not be pretty. Blowing into the compartment is going to have repercussions. Blowing against the other side of the wing is an obvious way to get close to the epoxy, but that side is covering, wood of unknown species, and a layer of glass cloth, all between the epoxy and the heat gun. An iron might work better. In any case it could be risky, the reason I was asking about other glues.

That Avia is quite a piece of work. I've flown it one good session so far and it's quite a performer. There has been a price for the performance. The "instructions" themselves are not of value to beginners and should hint that to whomever looks them over. You're not going to read them over, as they're just pictures so reading isn't of much importance.

I've used the servo tape to hold the servos down. It will work well. I've got some gunstock tools that will work well to defeat that tape if needed. The covers are glued on with canopy glue and it's defeatable with a thin blade. When I asked the question I was concerned with the thickness of the servo mounting tape and humorously, had limited experience with 'normal' glues.

This thread has gotten a lot of good info. Hope it'll be useful to many.