Help, I'm building my first ARF and I hinged the elevators too soon. How do I unhinge them? I used super thin CA if that helps.

maybe try this stuff?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...P?I=LXM379&P=8

dunno how effective it is or if it works on balsa.

You said you hinged the elevator to soon ?? Can't you just leave it and work around it ??? In most cases you would have to cut the hinges and replace them in another location, not fun. Good Luck. ENJOY !!! RED

What's the plane? How about a picture or two?

Usually the "rudder" is the bit that gets mounted too soon creating problems because the torque rod that connects the two elevator halves typically needs to be "captured" by the rudder's leading edge. Thinking that's why red head was asking the ?

The elevator torue rod is not installed. I assume that it fits into each elevator half and then the elevators are to be hinged. I read the instructions very carefully before I started and they say absolutely nothing about installing it. Since it told me to hinge the ailerons and flaps, I just went ahead and hinged everything at the same time. The is a discontinued Carl Goldberg Skylane 62 ARF and I don't think the instructions are very good. I went to the web site and looked to see if the instructions had been updated and they haven't. Is there a chance that I debonder will wick up the hinges and loosen them enough to remove them?

There's a couple of options:
<ul>[*]DEPS - dual elevator pushrod system - an elevator control rod from the servo has a built in "Y" so that the torque rod is not necessary - both elevator halves have their own horns. Getting both halves of the elevator pair to move in unison is problematic but doable.[*]Two elevator servos with a "Y" wire - each with its own control rod (overkill)[*]Is the hinge gap wide enough to allow the torque rod to be inserted into both halves from either the top or bottom? Opening up the holes in both elevator halves would be needed. Filling the holes with epoxy to fill the "sloppy holes" and align the elevator halves is doable.[*]cut the CA hinges with a razor / Xacto knife flush with the stab TE and elevator LE, cut new slots, insert &amp; epoxy torque rod, re-hinge with new CA hinges.[/list]
Maybe others have different options.</p>

Thanks for the help John, I cut the hinges, made new hinge slots and got it installed correctly no thanks to the instructions that came with the model. I just hope two hinges per elevator surface instead of the original three is going to work out OK.

That's what I usually do. When I rebuild a old classic plane or out of production aircraft, I usually take all the covering off and with a safety razor I cut the CA hinges right at the control surfaces, then I use my safety razor with CA debonder and cut the old ones out. If I gouge out the slots a little too wide, I just use a sheet of balsa and cut it the same length the gouge is, CA it in and sand smooth.

I did that when I restored my Greatplanes Fokker DR1.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10..._7/key_/tm.htm

What was really fun is removing the old Dubro Nylon Hinges! Not only we use epoxy with those hinges (most of the time) but they were pinned in with metal pins! [:@] If you want to do a quick job and not go all out and over do it like I did- then I'd just do what was already mentioned by gamewarden.

That's my take on it.


Pete

learn to leave ( the final fitting/gluing of hinging the elevator rudder and ailerons as the very last thing you do before the plane can be called "done". all the covering can be done, the rigging and pushrods can be made close enough during construction for fine adjustment after the final hinging is done. I like to cut the ailerons out of the trailing edge and leave them off (hide them from yourself, if you have to ,....I know the temptation !) until the plane is completely built and covered then hinge them. same with the elevator and rudder. simply leave them both loose...off the plane, no slots cut or anything that would allow them to be mounted before they should be,..... cover everything and then slot and hinge. with out hinge slots in the edges, there is no way you can mount something before it should be mounted and it's not any harder to do with the covering on than it is with the covering off.

you might be able to get away with using a bent wire torque rod, slipping it between the rudder / vert. stab joint (maybe making a small notch for the torque rod), cut the hinge slots and then slip the elevator halves onto the hinges and torque rod. things like this, are why I don't even make provisions for mounting control surfaces until the plane is all covered......and sometimes not until it is all painted, if using fabric. another reason is that repeated on and off cycles of the hinges and control surfaces usually leads to looser fitting hinge slots and sloppy surface alignment. do it once,.... get it right and get it tight.