Hi,

I am new to the R/C world and I recently purchased a Tower Hobbies MKII 40 Trainer ARF. Anyways, I was moving too fast during assembly and I mistakenly used epoxy (Z-Poxy 30min) on the CA hinges to joing the ailerons, rudder, etc... The hinges do move, but they seem stiff, then again I don't have much to compare them to as this is my first plane. I haven't hooked up my servos yet to check the throw but I was wondering if this is even something I would want to try to make work or if I should just rip it apart? Any input on this would be greatly apreciated.

You had to glue hinges on an ARF???

At least they won't come loose now...

It's probably one of those questions it is hard to answer without seeing the Airplane but I'm sure if you have some movement you will be able to free the hinges enough to get full movement...

Go ahead and hook up the radio gear and just work the movable parts until they free up...

Should be fine...

Matt

You can't use epoxy on CA hinges. You'll need to take it apart, or it'll most likely come apart by itself in the air. []
Sorry,
Dennis-

I made the same mistake last year on my avistar. I flew it without incident all seson. However, this winter, I put new ones in using CA. You might be ok with epoxy (i was)or you might not. Maybe I was lucky. If you have the time cut them out and redo them properly for piece of mind. All I did was cut the hinges and then just made the hinge slot wider to accomadate the new hinges. You can have them done in an evening. Good luck

Back in the old days when we use to epoxy all our hinges in, for extra good measure we would put a pin or two (a tooth picks works well with a drop of CA) through the hinge through the wing and aileron or stab and elevator etc. If the wood is of good quality where you are hinging the hinges will never come out with pins helping to hold them. Trim the pins flush and add a piece of monokote trim to hide them. Not the best fix, but it works well is simple and will give you a piece of mind.

jclstone

I would suggest you redo the hinges. Simple to do, the technique is to simply cut the controls off with a blade and smooth the old hinge with a bit of sanding. Now just start over with new hinges and move them next to where the old hinges were to one side or the other. Even without perfect hinge spaceing it will be just fine. Trying to reslot where an old hinge was is troublesome and you will never get the slot in the middle. For your trainer the CA hinges are fine and it is not neccessary to do extra things like pins.

John

I only use the plastic hinges with the steel pin in beteen the 2 halves. I epoxy them in and then pin them with round tooth picks. I use epoxy for the tooth picks as well. I tried CA but if the tooth pick slows down while being inserted the CA will suddenly set and you won't be able to move them any more. I cut one end of the tooth pick flat and leave the other end pointy. Then I start inserting it with the pointy end and keep going until the flat end is level with the wing surface. Then when the epoxy has set, you only have one end of the tooth pick to trim. Don't forget to predrill a tiny 1/32" hole through the hinge and wing before driving the toothpick through. [8D]

Ok, you did wrong, but you can still save yourself from having to remove everything and redo it (Which would be a time-consuming PIA)

Here's what I would do:

First, add a few drops of Acetone to the hinge areas (One control surface at a time) and work them up and down. Once they loosen up, flush the area with alcohol. That should take care of the "Too Tight" problem.

Next, push a pin through the balsa where the hinge is (Bottom side). As soon as the pin pushes through the hinge, stop pushing! Now cut the pin with a side cutter and push the protruding nub just below the surface.

Now your hinges are loose(er) and pinned in place - Go fly.

If you're scratching your head/butt... this is nail polish remover. If you have to go out and buy some, get it unscented.

Hey thanks alot you guys! I'm going to try the acetone/pin solution tonight (thanks minnflyer ). You've all been really helpful, I'm impressed.

My older sister bought some like last week...its all gone and she didn't even use it!

Well, I did the acetone/pin solution...and it works great! Much more flexible. Hopefully she holds together!