Good Morning

What is the best way to remove monokote from the underside of the elevator in order to expose bare wood so that it can be glued on to the fusealge??

Thanks

heat gun, and start picking and peeling... and take your time

I heard that a soldering gun could be used to outline the area to be removed insetad of an x-acto knife to avoid cutting the underlying wood? Is this a smart or stupid idea?

The best way to remove Monokote is using heat from a heat gun. The reason is that when you try to pull monokote off without using it it's possible for it to actually pull chunks of wood out when you remove the covering. When you use a heat gun it heats up the adhesive and then you can easily pull it away from the wood without working about it sticking to the wood. Using a soldering iron to "cut" the covering is actually a good idea because it will melt the covering and not damage the wood underneath.

Once you have the monokote off you're probably going to have to sand the wood down to remove the color that is stained into it. Monokote has it's color layer embedded in the adhesives so the wood gets stained the same color as your covering.

Hope this helps

Ken

It sounds like you are trying to assemble an ARF or a covered kit. If you are just trying to remove an area so you can install the elevator carefully use a soldering iron to cut the coveing at an appropriate point. Once you get it started you can lift the covering slightly from the wood and cut with a new blade. Be sure you do not cut the wood. After removing the desired section, re-iron the remaining covering.

Question - do you need to remove the covering from both the top and bottom of the elevator? In many planes you do.

Hi

Why do you want to glue your elevator to the fuslage?

Simon

I'm sure he actually means the horizontal stabilizer.

Hi

Indeed probably, to do that i use a very light cut with a steel rule and a new scalpel.

Simon