How do you glue your Pinned Hinges?

I know you can epoxy them in but that's really messy. The package says to use epoxy or slow drying white glue.

Questions is, can I use 560 canopy glue? Lot less messy and it dries clear.

Never tried it but I think I will now that you've mentioned it.

I have used a water soluable Maximum strength Hinge Glue Pacer PT-55 with much success. It will not allow the hinges to come out. Just use a little sandpaper on the plastic/nylon hinge material to give it some "bite" and this is the easiest way to glue the hinges. NO mess. Water cleanup! Available at most hobby shops.

I like the GP hinges, white plastic tabs with 3 pinholes on each side. I cut my slots so the tabs slip in with some pressure on them, so they have a snug fit, not loose. I cover both surfaces after the slots have been cut, but only insert the hinges when the covering is finished. I then line everything up, make sure the hinge line is straight, everything flops freely with no resistance.

I then lay a spare hinge over the lower surface, line it up with each hinge, and use that as a template for piercing holes with a T-pin, deep enough to reach the inner hinge, but not through all the way to the other side of the surface. I do this for all the hinges. Then I insert the pins, which are short lengths of 1/32" music wire clipped just short of 1/4" for a surface of that thickness (clipped with diagonal cutters) and push each pin in the holes with a needlenose pliers. It's easy to tell when your T-pin has found its way through the pinholes in the hinge tabs. If you're off, just withdraw and go back in at a bit of an angle till you penetrate the pinhole.

I run my fingertip over the pinholes to make sure I don't feel any snagging from a wire pin not seated deep enough in its hole. If I feel a scratch, I push the wire down with a short piece of larger diameter wire.

Now I drop just two drops of CA into each pinhole. These are tiny drops, from one of those little plastic micro tips that you stick on your CA bottle. Two drops in each hole, and you're done.

I have had occasion to tear into a surface hinged this way (unfortunate accident), and I found that the CA spreads out from each pinhole to maybe 1/4" diameter of CA'ed wood. Three such holes, CA and steel pins in each hole, no way that hinge is going to come loose. I've never had any difficulty with the CA wicking out to the hinge-pin and jamming a hinge. My hinges are loose as a goose, present no resistance whatever to servo movement.

For quarter-scale & larger, I use the same kind of hinges, but I think they're Klett or some such. I have a little tray full of them, bought a long time ago, so not sure exactly who makes them, but they're just a larger version similar to the GP item.

If the design permits, on any plane up to but not including quartere scale, I actually prefer monokote hinges, continuous covering from fixed surface through the hinge line and wrapped over the moving control surface. Tri-stock on each facing surface at the hinge line, 1/32" gap between fixed & movable, adhere the topside & bottom side covering to each other in that little gap. With adhesion the full length of the hinge line, you've got a very strong hinge. This only works with straight wood. If either surface has a little bow in it, you'll get a snap action when the surface deflects from one side to the other. Of course you'd get the same thing with conventional hinges, but it's accentuated with full-length monokote hinge.

I use Pacer products whenever I can. The quality is always there. When they came out with the hinge glue I did a .60 size plane with nylon hinges. Nice applicator tip gets you in the slots and of course the water cleanup is nice. I tortured that plane with never a problem. I'm doing some metal hinges in the 80" WM Extra right now and I'm running an experiment. Fixed flying surface hinge-halves will be epoxy, control surface halves will be Pacer. I don't mind the epoxy on the first half, you have time and room to do a nice cleanup around each hinge. It's the other half of the job that has me worried. As the clock is ticking, glue goes in all the slots, spread some on all the hinges, get hinges aligned and in the slots, then that final push and mate-up. Then starts the cleanup of your squeeze-out. Anyway, I just had more control over the situation with Pacer and no epoxy fingerprints all over the plane.
Jack

I put a strip of monokote on the facing sides of the surfaces so I have monokote on the hingline and maybe a 1/4" on each side of the surface.

Then I cut and install the hinge, don't glue it in yet but dip the pin part of the hinge in vaseline so CA won't stick to it and hose it up.

Then drill a 1/16" hole through the surface with the hinge installed. Drop a couple of drops of thin CA in the hole to glue the hinge. Now use some thick CA on a round toothpick and insert the toothpick in the hole. Cut off the toothpick pieces sticking out.

Sand the toothpick flush with the surface and then apply monokote over the surface starting at the monokote strip that you previously applied.

Hinge is installed, hardly any gap, and it's invisible.

I use Goldberg/Klett hinges exclusively and haven't had a failure yet.

The RC-56 canopy glue I have is not very firm...fairly rubbery (don't know about 560). I use 30-minute epoxy and Robart hinge points and try not to put too much on to minimize squeeze-out. Load up the hinge area with vaseline and then you can easily remove dried epoxy that might be initially gumming up the hinge...

Probond works quite well for pinned nylon hinges
since it foams up and expands into the holes in the hinge.

After I have everything covered, and the hinge slots opened up through the covering, I melt a little vaseline n a lid, fold the hinge and dip the hinge in the vaseline. You can see it wick into the hinge pin. I set them aside until the vaseline solidifies. I take some vaseline on my finger and rub it on the covering around the hinge slot so the expoy won't stick. I use a clear plastic soda straw to get the epoxy into the hinge slot. Flatten one end of the straw as best you can, then suck the expoy up into the straw (be careful when doing this, epoxy doesn't taste particularily good!) The flattened end of the straw can be put into the hinge slot, and the epoxy squeezed in as you withdraw the straw. After everything is together, chip off any expoxy that may have squeezed out. I've never had one come loose yet. I'm also getting real partial to the CA hinges. Quick and neat installation.
Randy

Tonight I did those metal hinges from World Models. 5 per aileron and sure enough, just doing the first wing side half I ran into the 30 min. epoxy congealing by the time I inserted the last 2. I had spent most of my time jamming exacto blades of the epoxy into the slots. The straw sounds nice. On the second wing I just did 3 then 2 more with a second batch. I used Vaseline on the hinge line, and Gelcoat, a carnuba wax spray used for cleaning up fiberglass sinks & tubs on the covering before insertion. I also spotted my trusty Rat-Shack talking timer I use for glider thermal duration practice and thought, "hey maybe I should use this thing when mixing epoxy". It sits there in the "clock" function when in the shop.
Jack

Hi,

I used thin CA to glue my pinned nylon hinges in. The plane is a lil cap 232 (.90 size). I didnt know better as far as glue; will this be ok? I also ironed on a sheet of covering on the bottom side of the hinge line to reduce flutter etc.

Thanks,

Paul

I think it will be ok.