Not exactly. There still has to be enough "stock" to cut threads into.

Obviously, you can't drill and tap soft woods - pine, balsa, redwood, and so on.

The best suggestion is to treat the drilled hole with thin CA before and after passing the tap through the hole in hardwood. Hardwood will take a properly sized drill without gouging, when done carefully.

CGr.

When I used to use rubber bands on all my planes I would store them in a small tub like Gatoraid or instant tea comes in. The wide mouth makes thebands easy to get back out out.I also put oilsorb (like used for cleaning up oil spills) in the tub so the engine oil was cleaned off the bands. They last a lot longer when stored like that.

Come on, now. A quarter pound of #64 rubber bands costs $2.99. That's about 100 rubber bands. Tower Hobbies sells them. They will bundle three boxes of a quarter pound each at $8.58. That's around 300 rubber bands for under 9 bucks. Oil soaked? Throw them out!!!

Besides, most people use them once then throw them away. They will stretch to the limit, then when they get oil soaked, they are basically useless.

CGr.

I guess I have raised "being cheap" to a new level for you. See, there's one in every crowd. And today I'm it. And best of all I don't buy the good ones from the hobbyshop. I buy the cheap ones from the office supply. I think they are about two bucks a bag. I can't remember. I have had them a few years now. But you are right, I have seen a lot of folks pull them off and throw them away after one use. I always get them out of the trash. I hate it when they cut them off. You have to tie the ends together and then they are really too small.

I hope you realize I am kidding.

For the most part.

I don't even try and pry the used bands off. I just cut them with scissors to save time.

AAAAUUURRRGGG! SEE! Thats what I'm talking about! Such waste!

I don't carry scissors. Added weight inside my vehicle uses more gas.

Bob

it's not waste. Waste is what happens when you re-use rubber bands that have lost their elasticity and fail in flight.

I thought I had a box full of good, fresh rubber bands, so I put 10 of them on my trainer and put it up. When I landed, four of them had broken. I looked over all 10 of them. The fresh ones were obvious, the not so fresh ones were too.. Can you guess what ones they were?

It's just not worth it.

CGr.

That's what I was gettin' at.   I shoulda said 'Don't worry about a little undersize, as wood's very forgiving.'  I was a custom machine builder in a previous career, metal's a lot less forgiving.

I've seen guys store RB's in talc, corn starch, baby powder, and with some old-timers it's just what they do. I must've been lucky, my RB's never seemed to get very oily.

AH... Ok. I just didn't want a beginner to go ahead and drill a hole at 3/8" and try to thread it with a 1/4" 20 tap, ya know?

As far as rubber bands are concerned, well, I tried to make my point. I won't argue about it (not that one was intended here). I think it's prudent to throw them away after the day's flying. At $2.99 for a quarter pound, they are cheap enough to replace. And, considering what would happen if they broke in flight due to a hard UP elevator input, or a high G turn, even if both were done by mistake, well, it really doesn't matter what the cause was, if they break under stress like that, and the wing comes off, you will quickly learn the meaning of "lawn dart".

CGr.

I've only had a few planes that used bands to hold the wing on and the one I have almost done is an ARF, Hanger 9 Alpha 40 with a Saito 56 strapped in. I have modified several planes to go from bands to nylon bolts, but on this plane I decided not to for a few reasons. For one, It's a nice plane even though I normally am a kit builder and am not an ARF guy, it's a nice plane and I don't want to change it up much in case I goof up with a conversion. I have an expensive new engine mounted to it and I'm not willing to bust it up thinking I'm a better Engineer than the Hanger 9 guys. And I'm not willing to re-use cheap rubber bands at the sake at trashing my Saito.

RC planes can be an expensive hobby and I'm not willing to trash my expensive gear on cheap oil soaked rubber bands.

I see I started something on reusing rubber bands. I am doing all my posting in jest. But I do have a story for you. After my last post the wife and I went to get a bite to eat. We went out through the garage door. I looked at my new airplane sitting on the workbench. The wing is held on with 2 rubberbands. One of them had broke. I may have to rethinkmy rubberband strategy. Heck I may have to buy a box of fresh bands.


CGR I learnd about lawn darts with the first RC plane I built. It was a little stik. Somehow i missed the part about glassing the center section of the wing. I just butt glued the wing halves together. It stayed together for a long time. Then one day I did a kamakazi dive and a full up elevator pull out. The wing failed. I did rebuild the plane though. Now I am a fanatic about center sections being strong.

YO!!!!! You can get # 64 rubber bands at Big Lots for .99 a bag. That works out to a little less than $4.00 per pound!

Shake a bunch of talc powder in your rubber band bag! Keep out of the sunlight. Problem solved!

  just don't use the ones they put on your newspaper ...

Levram thanks for the tip. I have a Big Lots about a mile from me.

My new plane is a SPAD made from coroplast. I looked at it a little closer and the second rubber band was about to break. The front hatch has a sharp edge on it on both sides and it was cutting the rubberbands. A few seconds with an X-Acto knife fixed that problem.

No you did not start anything new, In fact though my short term memory is rapidly failing I can still recall all the exact same arguments concerning reuse of the rubber used to provide the energy to move that little wiggly thing on the back end of the airplane called a rudder in the distant past.

No concensus was ever reached then either.

For the new folks who do reuse rubber once or twice Do learn how to inspect each band before installing. Yes this inspection will give a clue to impending failure.

Stretch each one before use to at least twice its relaxed length and look very closely at the edges. If you see microscopic lateral cracks it will not last out the day. Keep in mind the rubber is not UV resistant and just a few hours in the direct sun is enough to cause problems.

Its for this reason its always advisable to keep even first time out rubber out of the sun for anything but brief periods. I always advise my students to always cover two things on their airplanes with a rag, coat or anything and that is your Transmitter and the wing rubber of your exposed and assembled airplane if used.

This will also serve to help keep the Receiver cooler which is indeed a concern with our modern 2.4 systems.

John

Just deep six the rubber bands and use new ones. They are too cheap to risk wing failure!

Good timing... past weekend was a good time to 'unband' my 6' Telemaster. Six yrs. using them was enough. Mounted a cross member made from ply up front, then a hardwood block on the front of the wing with a carbon dowel in it that fits into the front plate. Made a back plate with blindnuts to hold the rear of the wing. Works like a charm. At least on the ground, hoping winds down enough to get it in air this week, see if it holds up. Was a bit harder than thought it would be to get everything lined up and drilled properly to allow the wing to ride straight.

Rather than tapping blocks for Nylon or steel wing bolts there are brass threaded inserts that self-screw into a plain 5/16" hole that are pre-threaded. 



http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...LXK034&P=7

Or just a "T" nut under the block works as well. 

You don't need to buy a 1/4-20 tap, pilot drill and wrench.

Rubber banding a wing to the fuselage is a method to safe guard your airframe from the moment a wing tip touches the ground. This is designed with the beginner in mind and nothing else. It's like attaching training wheels to a bicycle. You protect the byclist and the bike frame.

-1

Sorry, guys, but I'll just buy what I need. 3 bucks won't break my bank. It comes down to a matter of trust. I don't trust Talc. I DO trust new rubber bands.

CGr.

Damn, there goes CG again, dirving to the LHS to buy 8 more rubber bands.!

Any one that wants info or that can make a drawing to post , contact me and I will explane -Just call anytime -well not at 2am in the morning less ya all like bad words
anyway call me Don 612 385 7601 and I can explane real simple how to do it -hey if it works on Sr Teles with gas motors hauling up 2 or more 3lbrc skydivers it will do the job for you
Advantage Straps stay with plane -no more forgot bands
No more used messy bands
no more dents in wing edges from bands
Holds better than bands
Easer and much faster to hold wing
and much more