I got a few ARF'S under my belt and for my next one I would like to try the pinned hinges....I am just not fond of the CA hinges even though they work fine. What tools would be needed to do this? I am assuming the pre-slots would have to be opened up more.

I use Dubro flat hinges every time that I can. What special tools are needed?

Snap off a short section of hacksaw blade. The broken piece will be perfect for enlarging those slots. The teeth will cut out the right thickness and pull the balsa dust out at the same time. Take a little care with each slot. Before you start, look to see if the slot is actually centered and straight. It's amazing how many aren't perfectly centered or straight. With the hacksaw blade, when you're widening, you can work the slot to be straighter and better centered.

That's it for me.

I do have a Slot Machine and it's good, but won't straighten or center nearly as well as that no-cost tool.

you can do it the hard way
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXE230&P=7
or the easy way
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXK263&P=7
for pinned hinges you will need thicker blades
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXK266&P=M
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXPT33&P=M
depending upon the hinges used.

I use the machine for my slots.

I also prefer Robart hinge pins for my hinges though.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXET54&P=7
Available in different sizes and various package sizes too. Just drill a hole basically.
http://www.robart.com/how_to/hinge_points.aspx

The broken hacksaw blade works quite well for opening up the slots for pined hinges.

Do not forget to heat some vasoline in a metal can and dip the hinge area into the melted vasoline. This keeps the epoxy out of the hinge joint.

If you are going to use Robart hinge points (also QUITE GOOD ), I strongly suggest getting their drilling guage for centering the holes and don't forget to inlet/recess each controll surface for the hinge joint.

You didn't ask, but..............

After being out of the hobby for 17 or so years, I was still dreading two tasks when I got back in a year or so ago. I did not look forward to epoxying hinges in, nor did I eagerly anticipate gluing canopies on. And darned if I didn't discover Canopy Glue and even better..... Hinge Glue.

I didn't trust either of them when I first saw them. They looked like Elmers. No way I'm going to trust wood glue to hold hinges in, and figured it was a joke for canopies also. wrong wrong

I made up some hinged surfaces with junk balsa I pulled from my scrap balsa box. (I been modeling since we chipped our models out of rocks and flew them on dried Brontisaurus gut control lines, so that box is pretty big.) I did about 5 or 6 hinges and did the gluing a couple of different ways. And then I tried to defeat the hinging. Well, after the glue had dried, I tried. I wound up wearing my hands out and tearing up the stuff in a bench vice with vicegrips and finally cutting into the balsa to see if the glue had covered well. I knew it held absolutely, I just wondered if it had spread in the slots completely.

The stuff works. And is dead easy to work with.

Thanks for the help.

I do use Epoxy when installing these correct?

OH yeah, you know how people pin hinges with straight pins? I figure it's a real waste of time if you're using hinge glue.

Squeeze the glue into the slot. Smear some on the hinge flat to insure the flat is "treated". Stick the flat into the hole and if any glue squeezes out, smile and wipe it away with a damp Q-tip or paper towel bit.

It wipes away with no effort. That beats epoxy all hollow. And it's 5X easier to use from the gitgo. And it won't glue the hinge rigid if you wipe it away. Epoxy had a habit of invading the hinge itself. Even if this stuff does, flex the hinge, it pops free, and you're good to go.

The only thing easier is gluing a canopy on with canopy glue.

Wow more info Thats great. Thanks everybody for the input and the links....just what I needed.


Thanks again

Epoxy, hinge glue, polyeurethane (I don't use it)

NOT CA!!!!!!!!!!! [:@][:@][:@]

Be sure to take a moment to protect the pin area from the adhesive while gluing. I've even used hand lotion in a pinch but vaseline is best. Just be sure to keep it away from the bonding surfaces. Reason obvious.

To sum it up:

The SlotMachine doesn't work well to center or straighten an existing slot that's angled or off center. It's excellent at widening existing slots and making new slots. The hacksaw blade does it all. (I got and use both together.)

Hinge Glue is AWESOME STUFF. Better than epoxy.

What used to take an effort and some gluing skill/technique and some time is now dead easy and simple to do and takes just a little time.

If you use hinge glue you don't have to do this at all.

Darock - which hinge glue do you like best? I'll give it a try on my next build.
Is this it?
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXCX67&P=ML

mcoccia .. I just started using pinned himges on my last two planes, UCD 46, Showtime..
I ordered some Robarts/ tool, But after test fitting only one barb would have been in the
bulsa without mods, they say one is enough to hold them in, but........... So I ordered
some G.P. hinges with gorilla glue.. After many flts on both models there holding and
working great... Not that much more work, but wow on the "working" end.. They move
freely....

Hinge glue, no pin protection, holds good..... More info ...

bruce,
Yeah that's the stuff. And I gotta go get another bottle.

I also use it for a couple of other "strange" uses. Recently when bolting on horns, I started putting a dab under each of the two plastic pieces, the horn piece and the piece that goes on the other side of the surface. I figured it'd help a little bit (probably very little bit) to make the installation slightly more solid. Who knows.....

I've had the opportunity since the initial tests to explore how well it works on my "production floor". Yeah, I have crashed one of my airplanes that had those hinges with that glue. It wasn't old by any measure, but it had been pushed real hard in it's young life. And I'd flown it a lot.

And truth is, I really was still not convinced yet that the stuff was to be completely trusted. Back when plastic hinges first hit the scene everybody went crazy for them. It took about a year before people started reporting hinges pulling out. Seems the nylon in those hinges would continue to "sweat" or something and the glue and they would part company. The solution was simple. The brand that never let go happened to have holes in the flats. The glues, especially epoxy, would fill those holes from the balsa on one side to the balsa on the other and make virtual pins. To this day, I drill some more holes eventhough there are already ones there.

Those holes are why security pinning really isn't needed.

On the airplanes (yeah, more than one) that I've been able to autopsy that had hinge glue used on the hinges, all showed the glue was still holding strongly. And the glue had virtually pinned the balsa through the holes.

But heck, make up a trial and test it.

Oh yeah, I've not tested it on Robart hinges, the "stick with a hinge in the middle" ones. But the barbs on them should be trapped into the holes just like the glue does virtual pins through the holes in the flats of Dubros. And so far, I have no reason to believe the hinge glue isn't sticking to the plastic itself and holding for at least a year. When I autopsied, the closest I could get to the hinge flats was a layer of very torn up balsa on each side of the flat.

Hinge glue sounds good to me.


Have any of you guys ever taken a plane that had no failed CA hinges and cut them off and slot new hinges for the pinned hinge? Does this turn into a real mess and should I leave well enough alone until one of the CA hinges start to break apart?

Sorry guys don't mean to foul up the post but, Mcoccia where do you fly I spent the first 26 years of my life in Somerset County. I don't get up there much anymore but I started toying with electric planes with some friends at the Vo-tech soccer fields, and in the front section of Duke Island park. A friend just told me that they closed the 4H field, and I am wondering where people fly in the area

I used to fly Heli's at the Vo-Tech field....in fact we fly some of the nitro planes there also. The 4H is not CLOSED...I fly there most of the time now. I gave up Heli's because of cost of ownership and the pucker factor. I just got thrown out of the Duke Island Park They have some strict policy now including electrics, this is what the Park Ranger told me. I only goto the Vo-Tech when the 4H is closed for major events which is not often at all.

Most CA hinges are good hinges. I've never seen a failure from the ones that have that fiber coating on both sides. The only ones I've seen fail were ones in models that came already hinged and that had the slick, cheap hinges. There are a number of "great value" ARFs that come with what looks like reclaimed scrap plastic for their pre-hinged hinges. We had one of those shed an aileron about two days ago. It actually didn't shed it, just lost all three hinges and the flutter made the sucker uncontrollable. BIG MESS. Might have ruined the engine.

There have been posts in the past that told of using the plastic in the media taken from old floppies. Seems it flexes ok and will bond to balsa with CA. I cracked open an old floppy and the plastic looks very much like what I've seen used in the prehinged hinges.

I'm just now starting my new Skybolt ARF and it comes with CA hinge material. The stuff looks excellent. I'm debating using it because it feels like it'd be flexible enough and looks bulletproof. When you have the chance to choose your own hinges, there's nothing wrong with good CA ones. And I've never seen obviously good ones fail.

BTW, CA hinges do seem to require that all the slots on any one aileron/rudder/elevator surface be in line. The plastic is flexible one way, but seems to be less forgiving if it has any "twist" in the installation.

I think what defeats CA hinges is when they're not in line with the hingline. They start to tear from the sides. If they only had to flex up/down, they'd probably last forever. But having a twist seems sure death. And every "good value for the money" that I've seen has come with either preinstalled plastic hinges not centered and not straight or has come with precut slots that sucked.

It's interesting to me that I haven't ever seen an ARF that you had to hinge yourself, that had the garbage plastic CA hinges included. They've always had decent looking CA hinge material. Wonder if that says anything. And every one of the "great value for the price" ones all had decent hinges too but still had at least one slot on each surface that was screwed up and needed redoing.

I know that I won't buy any prehinged ARF until I can flex all the prehinged surfaces. If I see shiny plastic or see any hinge thats not straight with the hingeline, that sucker ain't going home with me.

Because IT IS A REAL PAIN TO PUT NEW HINGES INTO AN ALREADY HINGED AIRPLANE. (I finally got to the answer to your question... whewww)

Guys...I just picked up the Funtana X100 and some pinned hinges and glue.

Could you tell me if these are the correct Hinges and glue to use?

Those will work just fine.