jkkissick

OK when you glue to butts of wood together, like say gluing fuse sides together in the pt-40 trainer kit you would put the pieces together then put CA on the seem and it will seep in to the wood and stick. if this is the right way then i glued my pt-40 together wrong cause when i put my pt-40 together i put glue on the ends THEN joind them together. oh well im probably going to by the kit again anyways cause i built it when i was like 10 and did a horrible job on it but im 16 now and would like to try again. (PS right now its siting in my room half finished and its been in storage for 5 years, use your imagination) so what are your comments on this

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

You may be O.K. depending on what type of glue you used. Was it CA or a 'white' glue like Titebond?

Jerry

PS Welcome back

Daryl_y

Really not a ton of information here to answer your question. From what I gather talking about gluing fuse sides and doublers together if so what kind of CA did you use thick or thin? Thin CA is thinner than water and will seep into the wood so you can basiclly glue the ends or edges with the pieces already how you want them But you must have a tight fit also, thin CA does not glue light ply very well at all. SO use thick CA or titebond when glueing lit-plyor other harder woods.
Thick CA is pretty thick and can take up to about 30 seconds to dry and is spread on both pieces then put together so if you used thick Ca seems to me like you did it right. Regardless if the end result 2 pieces being stuck together well then its good enough. If the plane has set around for a few years run a bead of thin ca down everything you can and if there are gaps where the fit up isn't perfect fill the gap with thick ca or even titebond. Would not give up on your kit, you would be surprised what kind of bad mistakes can be fixed.

blw

My Feedback: (3)

Like Daryl said, check the joints. They are probably pretty good. You should finish the kit. Those are nice trainers and a lot of first time builders have them around for years and years.

Mike in DC

Butt joints are not too strong no matter what you do. If at all possible, I would just use medium CA to glue on a little reinforcing piece that would overlap both pieces, say by 1/4" or so. If you run the grain the same way as the fuse sides, you'll end up with a very strong joint.

But Daryl is correct, with medium or thick CA, you can put the glue on first, then put the pieces together. With thin CA, that doesn't usually work, because the glue seeps into the wood and dries so fast there's not much left to glue by the time you get the pieces together. Thin works great though on soft woods like balsa when you can assemble everything ahead of time, then just put a drop on each joint.

papermache

My Feedback: (35)

Jk,
Whatever glue you use, be sure you have a layer of waxed paper or plastic wrap between what you're glueing and the plan. Glueing the plan to the wood creates an awful mess.

papermache

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Here is what I do to butt join two pieces of sheeting:

Required items: Waxed paper, THIN CA, sanding block (Preferably with an old sheet of sandpaper cause you're going to ruin at least a part of it)

Start with waxed paper underneath.

Lay the two sheets side by side, and aligned.

Lightly sand the tops of the two sheets right at the seam. This will allow balsa dust to settle into any imperfections in the seam.

Lightly blow off any sawdust on the surface, but don't blow so hard that you blow the dust out of the seam.

Run a bead of Thin CA on the seam and immediately follow with the sanding block. FLip it over and sand the other side.

I have used this method many times and I guarantee this seam will never fail.