ORIGINAL: tigerdude426
do you glue your dowels in before or after covering? I am thinking it would be easier to glue them in before covering because after the covering it will be very hard to get in there and glue them. Also with them just sliding in and not having any contact with any wood except the fuselage around the dowel holes, I would like to add scrap balsa between the dowel and the formers so I can have more wood to glue them to. And that certainly can not be done after covering. So I have the dowels in now with the scrap balsa shoved in BUT I AM NOT GONNA GLUE THEM YET until I hear from you and maybe some other members about the advantages and disadvantages of gluing the dowels in first. It shouldn't be too hard to cover the plane with the dowels in and the dowels would have more support. What do you guys think?
I recommend following the instruction booklet and glue them in AFTER covering. The dowels have very little force trying to push them in/out of their holes. All of the force comes from the rubber bands trying to rip them through 1/4" of lite ply on each side. Ain't gonna happen.
Sig did a good job engineering this kit. No need to 2nd guess them.
Besides, glueing them in afterwards makes it MUCH easier to cover the fuselage without having to work around the dowels. Just flow in some thin CA and, if you like, a tad of med CA on the outside. Don't make the same mistake I did and pour in an excess amount. When I turned the fuselage over the CA ran out and spoiled the spoiled the gloss on the MonoKote.
I WOULD put a coat of some type of fuel proofer on the dowels. I used a clear polyurethane. You could also use colored (or clear) dope.