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Old 02-11-2005 | 03:22 PM
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8178
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From: Atlanta, GA
Default RE: Warped foam wings

ORIGINAL: GuyIncognito

I need some help with my warped scratch built wings. This is not the first wing I've built. This time I followed all kinds of advice. It's a Typhoon wing. I honey combed it - but not too much. I reinforced it with two strips of fiberglass window screening (ala the Temptation). I used Elmers Polyurethane glue. Put lots of pressure on the shucks to set. Used 4-6 lb. balsa from Lonestar, etc.

After I removed the wing after 24 hrs it was very bumpy (seems to be over the honeycomb holes and the screen strips) so I sanded it a lot until it was nice and smooth and voila, a nasty warp appeared. At least 1/4 of an inch + from root to tip.

Is there any way to rescue this wing. Am I doing something wrong? Ive had this happen to ailerons after they were cut from the wing but not to a whole wing. I've put a lot of work in this plane and don't really want to start the wings all over. I've thought about soaking the balsa in ammonia and putting it back in the shucks but when I've tried this on stabs etc. it just doesn't work well.

Can anyone point me to an appropriate thread or provide some advice. I'm going NUTS.
Back in the olden days before I could build a straight wing I had good luck heating the wing slightly on both sides over a hot electric stove burner while twisting the wing in the opposite direction of the twist. But that was with the wing skins glued on with contact type glue and not with the white glue you used, so it might not work. If you can twist the twist out of the wing when it is cold it might work.

My Tipo manual shows a scary method of cutting the wing sheeting on top of the wing from the leading edge of the wing root to the trailing edge of the tip and then doing the opposite on the bottom. The wing is then twisted straight and epoxy squeegeed into the cuts to hold it straight. Sounds bizarre but its on page 12 of the manual.