KenVW

hopefully this is the best spot for this question.

First I will say that I've covered a dozen or so planes so far & felt like I was getting pretty good at it. I am doing a repair for a club member on a Sig Sukhoi, the big green/cream one. He bought Sig covering (Aerokote I think).
I cannot get it to stick to the wood. I have tried various heat settings etc. Even got out my backup iron & tried that. I've NEVER had this problem with either ultracote or Monokote.
I'm trying to iron onto fresh new wood sheeting, not CA soaked or anything. Sanded smooth. Just as soon as I lift the iron the covering comes right back loose.

Any suggestions? wood sealer?[:@] It's like theres hardly any adhesive there.

Thanks,
Ken

GarySS

My Feedback: (13)

A coat of Blasarite? and then sanded smooth. Tower Hobbies stock number: LXB355 $6.99..........http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXB355&P=7

Crash Campbell

Hi Ken,

El cheapo home brand hairspray works well in assisting covering to stick to troublesome areas, ply and epoxy.

Good Luck,

Colin

KenVW

Thanks Gary,

A fellow clubmember told me to try the same thing. He was out of it. I treked clear to the next town to our local Hobby shop & he didn't have any nor did he understand what I wanted.[:@]

FYI, I took a scrap pc of ultracoat & ironed it to the exact same spot and had to work to get it back off, so I know it's the covering. I once again tried it with the same result. Before someone asks, I did remove the backing,, with the sig backing being clear it would be easy not too.

Thanks again,
Ken

ps.
just saw the hairspray idea, might try that too

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

Here is what Sig says about AeroCoat on their web site:

Temperature Range: Adhesive Activates 200 degrees F (93 degrees C)
Shrink Begins 210 degrees F (99 degrees C)
Maximum Shrinkage 250 degrees F (121 degrees C)

Bruce

Live Wire

Well I have done this but did you take the clear backing off the covering I cut a peace and for got to take it off .

KenVW

yes, I took the clear backing off, I've done that too[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]
I tried it yet again, it just will not stick. I does shrink with the heat, just doesn't stick. We have 3 rolls of this for this plane cream/green/black, I used some green on the fuselage a few days back & it went on pretty good. I think this might just be a defective roll although some of it has been used. I think maybe it will stick to itself better than the wood? the pcs that have been used were for a fuselage repair patch.

Ken<><

beau0090_99

Ken,
Have you tried to adhere a scrap piece of the covering to something smooth and clean like glass or something to see what the adhesive is doing? Then if it is still working, try the balsarite or I think Sig has something like Stix-it or something for their covering. Probably obvious, but I would wipe the wood down with a tack rag too to make sure the dust is clear.
Good Luck,
Curtis
P.S. Let us know what you find out.

AERORICH73

Yup, that is the stuff to use. Balsarite, or Stix-it. It might take two coats. Sig charged me over $22.- for a roll of AeroKote including the shipping charge. Have not use it yet as I have a lot of Ultracote to use up.

Let us know how the covering goes on after applying either of the above materials.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

Return it to where you bought it from, or contact Sig. The product is defective. I doubt that you'll get any resistance for a refund or credit. Why wrestle with it?


Ed Cregger

KenVW

my thoughts too Ed.
I didn't buy the covering, the owner of the plane did. I have not been able to get in touch with him because of the Holiday weekend. I'm gonna get with him & either he will want to call sig or buy something else. Won't be a problem either way for me, he's a great friend & I'll re-cover or whatever.


I will try some on a smooth surface as suggested above, just to see what happens. I will report back what I find although it may be the middle of the week now before I can get back to it. I can tell you this much, I don't think I will be buying any for myself. I think Sig planes are awesome, including his. I just built an old Kavalier kit & love the thing. I can't help but think this is an isolated thing.

Ken<><

maynardrupp

I have a very nice SIG Waco SRE. I am having similar problems making small repairs. Patching a small puncture hole or whatever and the SIG covering is miserable and almost impossible to get perfect. I am used to Ultracote and have no problems with that. It seems that the problem starts after sticking the SIG Aerocote down. When I shrink, the original edges pull in. You can see the glue beyond the original patch edge. Of course that makes it impossible to remove the wrinkles. Maybe I am using a little too much heat. I have yet to achieve wrinkle free results, but I will kep trying. The airplane 's original covering is SIG Cub Yellow so I need to keep the color match. The roll I bought doesn't match perfectly either. I suppose all covering colors vary with different batches. [&o]

KenVW

As promised I will now report on the covering issue. Wed nite the owner came over to help decide what direction to go. Included in the choices were completely recovering the whole plane...new colors/scheme...pretty tempting but much work.

We decided to try something. I took a pc of the cream covering off the other end of the roll & it stuck....not good but it did stick. So we covered both sides of the rebuilt wing with it from the main spar back. It looks great in spite of the GREAT effort it took to get it to iron down right. Last night I finished the wing covering with the green color & it stuck much better than the cream roll. I think the roll I had was either really old or somewhat defective. It probably should have been returned but it seems like it will work, time will tell.

Since the top & bottom of this plane wing is virtually identical we changed the bottom side to cream/green stripes from spar back. Looks good. I had to remove pin stripes etc from the original side of the wing & they came off like a pc of cheap masking tape. The owner had previously bought a roll of red sig aerokote & wrapped the leading edge of both wings so it would be more visible in the air. One of those pcs blew off while he was flying a week or so ago. This was a pc probably 5" wide & 3 ft long wrapped around the LE. I removed the other one with little effort.

My conclusion is I hope I never have to work with Sig aerokote again, I certainly won't purchase any. But hopefully his plane will be back in the air soon. If this covering starts failing in flight it will probably get a total recover, the plane is worth it.

I will try to post a pix of the finished wing/scheme

Ken<><

GAP-RCU

Ken,

I do hope that you'll consider giving some feedback to Sig, and perhaps send them a sample of the covering. They've always been a great company to work with and a great asset to the hobby - I'm sure they'll appreciate knowing about any problems.

Gary

KenVW

Gary,
You're right, probably should. I might just pursue that for the reasons you stated.

Ken

F.Imbriaco

My Feedback: (56)

Don't beat yourself up too much. From what I've read and experienced through applications , the latest Monokote and Ultracote have their problems ,too. Monokote bubbles -like never before with heat application. Other than white and light yellow , Ultacote looks great until you have a model out in the sun ( don't we all when flying them ? ) - then the bubbles and blisters appear.

There is talk that the adhesives were reformulated to meet even stricter EPA requirements. The old stuff from both was much , much better. And BTW , both distributors deny any changes.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

Back when rec.models.rc.air was booming, there was a fellow named Brian (with an Italian sounding last name) that clued us in on using laminating film on our fun fly/pre 3D models. Not only was it a cheap iron on with great results, but a light buffing with Scotch-Brite pad permitted painting in any color you pleased, as long as it was fuel proof. He recommended the 3.5 mil stuff, but said he had used the 1.5 mil stuff without a problem.

You can buy a bunch of this stuff for little money, when compared to commercial iron-on films. You can get it with a heat activated glue and iron it on the same way as normal covering too. Still at a cheap price. It holds up as well as commercial iron-on coverings to fuel.

I vowed that if I ever got into fun flying again, even if just for sport, I'd use this film. I'm now ready to give it a whirl.


Ed Cregger

captinjohn

Thats the way ED....give it a whirl! Let us kow how it come out. Capt,n

KenVW

Here are photos...

JustErik

I use 1.5 mil laminating film almost exclusively on all my birds. The biggest I have is 60-size, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it on larger planes. I bought two (2) 25 inch x 500 foot rolls for about $56 shiped at Laminator Warehouse. This stuff handles very much like MonoKote and Ultracote. It does require a bit more heat and it's a bit more delicate, but it shrinks well and stays nice and tight. I spray the adhesive side with a light coat of cheap 99 cent WalMart spray paint and while it doesn't look as good as conventional covering, it's not terrible. Here is a pic of my Sabre 56, a Saito 100-powered profile ship.



The covering is semi-transparent, so if you are going for a very dark finish or are very particular about color borders and so forth, it might not be a good option for you.