Robart hinges: after the fact
 

I have an airplane with Robart hinges on the elevator. It is a 50CC scale. I bought the airplane from someone else. After a year of flying and shaking of the DA-50, I noticed the robart hinges are coming loose. Probably due to a poor job to begin with. I had an idea on fixing the problem instead of cutting them out and starting over:

Get a medium sized syringe.
Put Gorilla Glue (polyurethane) in the syringe through a cup.
Inject the needle into the area right next to the hinge until it is inside the cavity.
Inject glue into the cavity and make sure none comes out as it expands.

Sounds like a simple way to fix it without ripping it all out. Pretty much non-envasive.
What do you think?

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

You maybe could do the same thing with pacer hinge glue. Have to be careful with the gorilla glue as it will expand and be hard to keep off the joint. JMO

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

Duplicate post

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

I would also worry about it swelling and splitting the wood. Like the other recent post in loose hinge points, cutting them off and properly installing new ones next to the old would be you safest path and the one most likely of success.

For what its worth, I tried to use a a syringe with the biggest needle I could find at the farm supply. The thickness of the glue all but prevented me from getting any out of the needle, and I was just trying to put a fine line along the top of the ribs. That was with TiteBond. I can't imagine that Gorilla will be any better, and most likely more dificult.

Don

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

Pretty much what Don just said. I went out and gave some of my old metal tips from my dental lab days a try, they are shorter then most needles, shorter, thicker and have a bigger hole. I couldn't get enough pacer or Gorilla glue through them to do a safe job. I would just install new ones next to the old hinges.

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

I've got some Pacer Hinge glue that I'm going to try with a needle on my hinges. We will see if it will work. I'll let you know.

chopper

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

Try it on some scrap wood with a hinge and see how it works. Hate to see you loose a plane because the hinges came loose.

Don

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

I just tried using the needle. The needle I had is pretty small but the Zap hinge glue went through it with no problem. The one problem is that there is really nowhere for the glue to go as my hinges are a pretty tight fit. We will see, I think I was able to get some down in the hinge. I'll let it dry overnight and take a look in the morning. Just got to keep my figures crossed.

chopper

RE: Robart hinges: after the fact
 

In my experience, solutions like this just result in more problems. I don't think it's possible to ensure that you'll have gotten glue much beyond the point at which you pierce the wood with the needle.

Is the model worth a couple of hours' work to you?