pjwright

Anyone had experience ironing air bubbles out of Nitroplanes' film covering?

I'd appreciate hearing your recommendations before taking the trial-and-error approach.

Thanks!


PJ

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

If you try it with trial and error be sure to start on the conservative side and work your way up.

Poke a hole with a pin and use a cotton shirt or a hot sock and stick down the covering when you find the temp that works.

pjwright

Thanks, 'Cuda,
I'm at 300 degrees on the iron and it seems to working okay for the isolated wrinkles.
I may have to get brave and break out the heat gun where they're massed together ... try and get 'em to draw up into one big bubble and then hot-sock 'em down.
The bubbles are over solid wood areas ... so I suspect humidity differential between China and my basement is the culprit. Otherwise, no covering wrinkles I can lay at the feet of the builder.

PJ

krproton

Hi PJ.

I know this is for a different kind of covering than what you have, but there is a Tech Notice I wrote up for MonoKote (oh, I work in R&D at Hobbico--Great Planes). It tells you how to "sneak up" on the best temperature if your covering isn't MonoKote, so this might work for your covering too.

Here is a link to the document I was telling you about.

http://manuals.hobbico.com/top/tighten-covering.pdf


Tim

pjwright

You da' man, Tim!!

That's exactly what I was looking for. In fact, I'll post this on our club website ... there's a lot of ARF flyers who are in obvious need of this information.

Thanks!!

PJ

krproton

Let me know how it works out for your members. I know the MonoKote job on ARF models isn't perfect, but with a little time, effort and the know how (provided in the "How to Tighten Covering on ARF Models" sheet), I think just about everybody should be able to end up with a covering job that will look great and stay that way.

Okay then,

Tim

pjwright

I followed your advice ... cranked the Coverite iron up a few degrees (~325) ... hovered it over the wrinkles (and I mean hundreds of 'em!), they softened right up and shrank very nicely. Then I went back over the surface like a typical Monokote job ... smooth but heavy pressure ... and the finish looks pretty darned good!
I experimented with the heat gun ... don't go there! Not enough control. Glad I put it down when I did. I may go back over the open spans with some hot air ... maybe.
Thanks, again, Tim ... a good bit of work in that tech guide.

PJ

krproton

I see guys using heat guns all the time and in my opinion, that's just not the way to go. Like you said, not enough control. With an iron (with a covering sock), once you've found the correct heat it will be pretty constant. Also, you can push down on the iron to really get the covering "nailed down" to the wood (wher it is over structure and sheeting). I know about the technique of using a glove or cloth to push down on the covering behind the heat gun, and that may make for a little better show finish, but it just doesn't get the covering bonded as well as using an iron.

Tim