I am in the final assembly stage and need some advice on attaching the vertical stab (fin). Is it just butt glued with CA - seems rather weak. Any help on this or other assembly tips would be appreciated.

I'm sure it's probably fine with some thick CA, but I used expoxy on mine the first time. It gave me time to adjust for squareness to the fuse while drying. On the second one...(dorked it being a dumb ***** and had to build a new fuse and tail feathers) I matched the centerline of the stab to the centerline of the fuse and drilles 3 small holes in the stab bottom. Then take 3 toothpicks and break them in half. Glue them into the stab with some thin CA pointy side down toward the fuse. Take the stab assembly to the fuse and gently press the centerline you marked with the toothpicks after you get it where you want. Then drill 3 more small holes in the fuse. I like to ream them out a little bigger on the fuse cause I can then move the stab around a touch to get it centered during gluing. Takes longer to type than it does to do. Hope that helps.

Oh....another thing I did was when gluing the tristock to the stab leave it long enough to marry up to the fuse. It's probably the way jeff wanted it done anyway, but when I did my first one, I trimmed it flush and then tried to match it up with the piece on the end of the fuse. If you use one long piece, it makes keeping your hinge line straight a LOT easier.

John

I use thin Ca on the horizontal and never had a problem.
Jeff W.

I'd have to agree with Jeff on this one... People often mistake thick CA for being stronger than med or thin... That's actually not the case... It just fills gaps better... Thin probably makes the best bond because it soaks into the wood fibers, assuming you have a tight joint....

I busted mine off on a hard tail hit walling out of an elevator. (man that sounds cool, huh?) I guess that's an extreme situation, but I like Dreamer's idea for strength. There's a billion of them out there so it must be fine. I wish they all were integral to the fuse like the Fat Free planes.

Thanx for the responses. I, too, like Dreamer's suggestion - just to be on the safe side.