Quick question...

What do you all do to prep your plane for covering?

I've finished up sanding... What do you do to get rid of the residue dust?


TIA

Lyndon

I blow mine off with air, and wipe down with a tack cloth. Then I spray it with a couple of coats of hair spray (cheap kind), let it dry throughly and
lightly sand with 400+ sandpaper, respray and then cover.

Use a tack cloth to remove any dust from the wood. If you don't have a tack cloth you can use a lightly damp paper towel to wipe down the wood before you cover.

Ken

What are you covering it with? If you are using film, that is one thing. If you are using fabric that is another thing. If you are using the old conventional items, like Japanese tissue, silkspan, silk, or nylon, then those items constitute a whole different approach.

Beware using water based items as those will definitely raise the grain of wood. That will require drying and another light sanding.

Always sand, and wipe off. Tack cloths are available in all paint departments and in the $ stores.

Fabric covering works great with one of the items sold for such, either SIG or the Great Planes item -- forget the name -- right now but it's in the catalog. Then several coats of clear butyrate dope (Preferably Broadak or SIG / Randolph ) will make it tight and stay tight for many years.

(Presuming heat-shrink "modern" covering here, like Monokote or Ultracote)

Sand
Air
Heat gun and a sock

vmsguy,

Who use's dope anymore? That method went out in the 80's. Only some Oldtimers still like to do it that way. I just blow mine off and then do as Ken said but I use a washcloth instead of paper towels to make it nice and clean. As far as the little bit of dampness raising the grain, don't wory about it. I haven't ever had an issue with that using film or fabric. Now I glass all my planes because I'm doing Warbirds but I've done a ton of civilian planes with some film but mostly Solartex and 21st Century fabric. Then I prime and paint it.

JMHO,

Gibbs

I do. I'm an old timer and proud of it. I used Hobby Poxy and K&B Epoxy before I was an old timer.
Built a LOT of models but I seriously doubt I ever built a "ton" of them. I build on the heavy side, but not THAT heavy.

Shopvac. Suck up as much dust as possible (from the inside too! ), then slightly damp paper towel everywhere thats going to get covered to get the little bit that's left. Cover as usual.

Before I start covering I use several coats of Balsarite to fuel proof the engine area, fuel compartment, and any areas fuel might soak into. I also put one coat of Balsarite on all wood surfaces to which I want the covering to adhere.

Then don't go to the 1/2 A forum. Silk & Dope is still a very good and acceptable method to cover. I'll take silk/dope on an open wing structure over plastic film any day. The only real disadvantage is it doesn't give the instant gratification of plastic film - you have to work to get a good cover and finish, but that's half the fun of building from either a kit or scratch.

Hogflyer

Also note that covering might not hide any dark grain in your material nor printed markings. I had some dark grain on an LT-40 I built and the yellow ultracote didn't conceal this when I covered it...





Coating this area with a white sanding sealer before covering would have concealed this. Learned my lesson though since this was my first build.

somegeek