I installed my first aileron hinges the other day, on my Raiden Tech P-51 .60 ARF. After reading many posts and tutorials, I decided to go with GP hinges. They recomended using CA or epoxy. When asked thier oppinion on Gorilla Glue (GG), they would not comment. I saw GG used in the Robart Hinge Points video, and it made alot of sense. The GG expands filling the voids between the barbs and is as strong as epoxy. One buddy expressed concern about the expansion of the glue and possibly splitting the balsa. I heard Elmers version of GG, called Ultimate glue (UG), foamed less. I purchased some UG proceeded to install the hinges. Slotting for these hinges took some time due to the added thickness of the GP hinge.

Here is what I did:

1. I oiled the hinges, removing the excess.
2. Slightly wet the slot, with a toothpic.
3. Aplied a thin layer UG to the slot, with a toothpic.
4. Aplied a thin layer UG to the hinge, with a toothpic, making sure to get it in the holes.
5. Pushed it in half way, and wiped excess glue.
5. Pushed remainder of way in, wiping excess glue.
6. Flexed hinge to ensure full travel, wiping excess glue.
7. Came back every 15 minutes to wipe excess glue as it foams. Acetone works great to gemove UG

Everything set up nicely, and I have full range of motion with no binding or restriction. I will be doing the rest of the hinged in the same manner, and let you know who it goes. Having never used CA hinges, only read about thier installation, I would have to say the GP hinges and UG process is much more time consuming. There is also a greater risk of gluing the hinge fixed, if excess glue isn't removed promptly.

I did a small experiment where I used a blue crayon and colored over the hinge area, filling in the gaps between the hinge and on the ends. I applied some UG and let it dry. two days later, I flexed the hinge and the glue popped right off in one chunk, with blue crayon adheared to it. I need to do the same with a uncoated hinge, as a control. I will also make some effort to determind the difference in foaming capacity between GG and UG.

Are you talking about using CA hinges in this process?

I think he's talking about the Great Planes pinned hinges found on [link=http://www.greatplanes.com/accys/gpmq3950.html]this page[/link].

It's the only hinge they have that states to use CA or Epoxy.

This hinge, sorry for the confusion.

I heard that GG and UG work really well for plastic hinges. I've always used Pacers Hinge Glue and RC 56 canopy glue for my plastic or robart hinges. Did you have problems finding the right amount of glue to put on the hinges so the foam didn't go all over the place?


Bevo

Well it sounds like you did a nice job of it, but it does sound alot more troublesome than CA hinges. I found them to be a little difficult at first too, but after picking up some tips in here, they're are now a snap. I guess it's like anything else, once you've learned the tricks it gets pretty easy to do. I'm glad it came out well for you, it's important to me to have a nice clean hinge line. Well done![sm=thumbup.gif]

I just got done rehinging the ailerons on my UCanDu. The guy I purchased it from used CA hinges and appearantly he didn't do it right as the right aileron came off one day last summer during flight. I went w/Dubro pin hinges and 30 minute epoxy. I used a great planes hinge slotting machine to make the job easy and rubbed petroleum jelly on the hinge pins before installing them.

A note about CA hinges. I once had Goldberg Profile 330 funfly plane w/CA hinges. I had all the throws set to beyond recommended full deflection and had the hinges in the rudder crack and break at the flex point over time. I'll no longer trust CA hinges in 3d applications.