ORIGINAL: 33willys
I'm about to mount the tail feathers onto the basswood longerons of my Elder 40. Got this mental immage of the elevator dangling by the pushrod at 30 feet. Which glue to use? Researched the different types. Had to take some things apart that were put together with 5 minute epoxy and it did not soak into the wood at all. Sort of surface glued. Don't think the CA glues will be stong enough. Sort of narrowed it down to either Elmers or Titebond. Titebond original, Titebond II or Titebond III? Not crazy about 30 minute epoxy. Any inputs would help me decide. Thanks.
30 min epoxy would be my choice, however 15 min does well. I never worry about weight as in these kinds of models you will not notice a few extra ounces if you balance the model using a CG not beyond 28% of MAC, unless you are very much under powered. [
]
I always add more wood and more glue surface area on my tail-feathers. Once you get the stab. in place a good reinforcement is to add a couple short lengths of 3/16 or 1/4 dowel by drilling a hole through the stab into the saddle. You state the longerons are bass wood so the dowels would really be a strong reinforcement so no bad mental images.
In addition inside the longerons of 1/64 or 1/32 ply triangles glued to the uprights and parallels will keep a lot of twist happening and add security to the tail section. So you add an ounce to the tail feathers. A couple ounces up front takes care of that and the model still stays together.
These models, except Eindecker 6 years old, are all 10-20 years old. Still active. triangles on longerons, uprights and cross pieces have assured longivety, on the 3 big fellows.