Help I am building a Sig Kadet Senior kit, and I just got to the point of installing the elevator and rudder with CA hinges. Here is the problem, when I installed the elevator my gap is to small and I do not have enough deflection up or down. should I cut the CA hinges and install hobart hinge points or cut the CA hinges and just relocate them with new CA hinges or any other suggestion??????

Thanks in advance for any help or advise
Royal Stout

I'd stay with the CA type hinges and just install them next to the old ones. But this time stick a medium size "T" pin common to what the ladies use when making quilts. If you followed the directions as per the builders manual you should have sanded a V shape to the leading edge of the Elevator and Rudder. Take your "T" pin and poke it in the center of the hinge and leave it in there. Then place the hinge into the elevator and mount it to your horizontal stab. The "T" pins will serve two purposes in this by first keeping the hinges even centered between both surfaces and it will also serve as a gapping tool similar to what one will do with a 16 penny nail when nailing your boards to a deck or a fence. Once the hinges are fully seated, carefully pull the "T" pins out and CA your hinges in place. You should end up with a nice evenly spaced 1/64th inch gap which will let you control surfaces deflect properly.

Hope this helps...

I would like to add a couple of things to what tschuy said.

After you have removed the T pins, flex the control surface to it's full deflection, hold it in this position and apply the THIN CA to one side of the hinge. Then flex it the other way to it's full deflection and repeat with the CA. After the CA has dried, flex the control surface several times in each direction before hooking up the linkage. If you feel the gap is excessive, take a strip of matching color covering and fold it so the glue side (dull side ) is out. Insert this into the gap and iron in place to seal the gap. If you place it on the underside of the control surface no one will even notice it.

When installing CA hinges, the correct way to do the slot, is to drill a 1/16" hole in the center of the slot after it is cut. This allows the CA to fully penetrate the hinge and provide an optimum bond with the wood.

Thank you Campy,

Forgot about the 1/16" hole trick. I remember that from a Great Plane's kit that I built some time ago.

Cheers,

Hi Tim,

All good advice from the boys. When I had a bit of spare time between builds, I would practise hinging on a peice of scrap.

Another thing I always do, is dip my finger into a jar of Vaselene, then run your finger all the way along the hinge line, to prevent any CA flowing into the joint and jamming the whole surface . I clean the Vaselene of with alcohol when the CA has set.

Good luck Tim.

Sidekick.

I never heard of that before, but it makes perfect sense and it would be simple enough to do with a pinvise. Thanks for that Campy! Of course, I really prefer the flat nylon pinned hinges to the ca type, but that's just me.

I've glued the hinges with epoxy, after I heard that some control surfaces which were glued with CA were rpped in the air.

Thanks guys for your advise, I cut off the old CA hinges and reinstalled new CA hinges. Thanks again, I'd like to get this puppy in the air soon so I hope I don't hit any more set backs.