Look at the pulled out CA hinge itself.

- Did it take the surrounding wood with it?

- If not is the hinge smooth and almost glasslike?


If the former the hinge was properly bonded with the wood but the surrounding wood "gave".

While some people here advocate only a few drops of wood, I frequently will add 8+ drops ( as often recommended ) along ths hinge slits on ARF''s to help harden the surrounding wood.

On some planes you can view how much penetration you are achieving by peeking through the wing root holes after the CA has dried.

If you cannot see the darkened CA hardened areas from behind, well past the hinge itself, you are not using enough CA and/or you have not placed holes or other CA distribution rivulets into the area first.


If the latter of the two above, the CA worked but the hinge material itself did not hang onto the fibers.

I have seen this with cheap asian CA hinge material.


Asian hinge material has fibers over a plastic base. The fibers CAN "give" way over time, leaving you with a broken control surface and a smooth CA hinge sticking out of the broken surface.

I''ve had this happen on two occasions with second hand planes...


The GP and Dubro CA hinges DO NOT have an inner plastic insert, rather they are fiberous all the way through.

I have never seen one of these give way... without first taking a large chunk of surrounding wood with them!

I suspect that you had the cheaper asian hinges.