Robart Pin Hinge Question
I haven't met this person here yet. I say this because it seems that He must be a member since He mentioned these forums. In the videos He doesn't want you to put grease on the hinges prior to installing them. But the instructions I have say to put grease on the hinges before epoxying them into the plane. While He does explain why He doesn't want you to do this. My Dad and I like to stick as close to the instructions as possible. Whenever we haft to deviate from the instructions we feel a little leary.
If Jim is reading this: Thank you for posting your videos.
http://youtu.be/VnBCelaWyP8
http://youtu.be/R_IKon3CiDM
http://youtu.be/sny6BT14Zwo
Since I may haft to deviate from the instructions, i wanted to double check with my other RC friends before following his advice. Because once you glue them in your stuck. Also He mentions mould release, which is left over from when the Hinges were made. There is nothing in the Robart instructions about pre cleaning them before glueing them. Once agan, I'm not saying He's wrong. I just would like to know where He discovered this. Why doesn't Robart Mention this?
You drill a hole just big enough for the hinge point to go in.
You put in a drop of wood glue then insert the hinge.
The wood absorbs the water in the glue and swells around the hinge point.
The glue dries and hardens the wood that is now pressure fitted around the hinge point.
Any water based glue that got into the hinging part it self breaks free because the wood glue doses not stick to plastic.
No need for grease.
Now some people don't trust water based wood glue and use epoxy instead.
Epoxy sticks to plastic really well.
So you need grease in the hinge to keep epoxy from getting in it.
If you follow directions then you will not need grease as you will be using water based wood glue instead of epoxy.
David
This is probably because people make airplanes out of other things besides wood.
Foam,plastic, and so one will need epoxy.
If so if your gluing them into wood and using wood glue you don't need grease.
If using epoxy then you might want to grease or wax the hinge keys.
Jim also hand drilled the holes, get a hinge drill guide! ARFs have very little wood for a TE and LE so no big problem but with a kit or scratch built plane it is normal to add some wood where the hinges will go into for more strength or meat to hold the hinge into.
I am not using epoxy for my pins these days, if from test fitting the hinges the holes get a bit loose then I use Gorilla glue.
I go into Walgreen's drug store and they give me free syringes without a needle used for things like flushing ears and stuff? I put glue or epoxy in those and squirt some glue into the holes, just cleaner.
I have never roughed up the hinges either but that is something I will be doing now too, cleaning and roughing. I will give the tape a try too. I felt he did everything very smart, I like smart, it's much cleaner then stupid. If you using epoxy give the no oil a try on a couple of hinges and see what you think. I think he did it smart and clean!!