I used Dave Brown Southern’s Sorghum contact cement to glue the balsa wing skins to the cores. I brush it on the balas sheet and core as thin as possible and let it dry for about ½ hour. Needless to say I do one side of the wing core at a time. I find it helpful to mark the inside of the balsa sheets so I don’t get them mixed up and brush the glue on the wrong side. The balsa tends to curl from the glue so I lay it on a flat surface next to a wall and put one end my steel three foot straight edge in the middle of the sheet and lean it against the wall to hold the sheet flat.

After the glue is dry, I lay the balsa sheet on my flat building board, line up the front edge of the core with the front of the sheet and press it down and then roll the core onto the sheet. I then turn the core over and rub down the sheeting tightly. At this point, I always sight down the leading and trailing edge of the wing to make sure it is true. If not the wing can be carefully bent a little to make sure it is true before the balsa skin is glued to the other side. Once both sides are glued on the core it is pretty hard to make any adjustments but it can be done before the contact glue is fully cured.

I use Sorghum on wings that will be MonoKoted and epoxy for wings that will be painted. The Sorghum works well with MonoKote and holds up excellent in our hot and cold southeastern weather.

To be continued…