67shelby

Could someone tell me their recommendation or "tricks" for repairing the foam blades? I've been told they can be easily glued, but was wondering what the best way to do this is. Where they seem to commonly break (adjacent to the blade grip) it doesn't seem that it would hold very good. Do you just glue them end to end, overlay them to each other, reinforce it with something else?? Does my question make any sense?

Also, because they are foam, what type of glue do you recommend?

As a first time (and so far VERY satisfied) Quark Owner, "Thanks" in advance for any help or ideas!

Mark

Dave ESPI

Repair = Don't crash.



Once broken they really can't be fixed. you can however, reinforce them initialy with tape.
There is a few threds on this here in the forums.

CostaRica1

Well, in my two weeks with the Quark and after around fifteen flights I have broken three blades, believe it or not I glued them with Epoxy and laminated them and those are the ones I'm using now without any problem.

67shelby

"Thanks" Costa... not sure abut Dave's comments as before buying this heli I can remember reading lots of posts about people gluing the blades back together (just can't seem to find them "now"). Now that I've purchased mine and flying it a little, I'm finding that most of the time they tend to weaken right there near the blade grip, not so much due to "blade strikes", but from the blade swinging all the way around from the sudden stop and the large end of the blade (right by the blade grip) hitting blade grip/rotor assembly itself.

Can you explain in a little more detail how you "laminated" them together? That's kind of the way I was leaning on going as well and want to get an idea of what you used (other than the foam blade itself)

CostaRica1

It's simple...just put back togheter the pieces of the blade, glued them...give them some time (a few hours) and then laminate the blades  according to the usual procedure....give it a try, you won't regreat...Good luck!!!

67shelby

When you say "laminate", what do you mean? Do you glue something to the blade, above and below where you glued the original break back together, stick some tape over it, what material do you use to laminate them together?

Balr14

Just use 5 minute epoxy. Apply it liberally. You don't need anything else. You can epoxy the same blades back together 3 - 4 times before they get to ratty to use. I've triedthe laminating method andit worksfor very minor "incidents" ,but it's more trouble than epoxy.

67shelby

Awesome. Thanks Bair. I'll give it a try. I guess it goes withiut saying then that the blade balance isn't as crucial on the Quark as it is on other single rotor FP heli's huh? If you've glued blades back together that many times the glue itself had to weigh a few grams!

Mark

Balr14

You still have to balance them. But, since they usually break in about the same place on both blades, that isn't real hard to do. If you add too much weight to a Quark, you can always add a couple turns on the blade pitch. I find blade inbalance to be more noticable on the tail rotor. You can epoxy them, too.

67shelby

Thanks again Bair

Yeah, this heli is so much more stable than virtually anything I've flown to date, trim/weight/balance are piece of cake to adjust for. I'll definately give it a try.

Any particular brand of 5 min. epoxy? I know some are not compatible with the foam.