Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

The last bad roll I got was white and the problem was not as much adhesion but shrinkage mostly. It suffered slightly from adhesion problems and I am thinking something happened in the manufacture process that was not completed or they got bad batch of material. It pretty much had no shrinkage at all. If you put it on and stretched it to the max and only used it on completely flat surfaces with very small areas you could use it, however it had a strange feeling to it, almost brittle like feel.

It was almost as if the material had somehow completely missed some process or was made out of a completely different type of mylar membrane. Honestly, I think notebook paper would shrink better than this did! I had a roll of orange that was amazing. You could even shrink it three or more times if needed! You could take it and run the hot air over it and watch it shrink then if you wanted it tighter you could do it again and that stuff would shrink like it was gonna pop like a balloon! I bet that stuff would shrink 25% or more. The white simply was garbage.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

The new Monocote sure has been doing some great advertizing for all the other shrink coverings! I went to Ultrakote! I would get a roll of Monocote that work some to not at all, it is a CRAP shoot! Monocote will never see another dime from me! To try and use it it just upsets me! When I got back into building I loaded up on the crap! It is going back to Tower!

davidgeorge212

You know what I would love. If there is anyone here that has a bad roll of monokote that doesnt shrink or is the wrong color or you hate it for whatever reason and you are ready to send it back to the manufacturer. Why dont you send a sample of it to me. I would honestly like to know why everyone else is having so many problems with it while I still believe it is an excellent quality covering.

Deadeye

I agree. PM me and I will give my address. I would love to try a roll or a scrap of the 'garbage', and see what is up. Maybe I could enlighten you all, who knows?

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Do you think maybe you just did not get a bad roll of covering like some of us did? I mean it does happen. You get bad stock sometimes. People get bad engines that have metal shavings or maybe bad bearings in them. Stuff happens I have some Monokote that is A100 fantastic. It all does not come to me bad. I only had a small amount that was bad and a roll of white in particular.

I remember about four months ago I had one roll of MonoKote that was good, all except one section on the roll that was about 12-18 inches wide. It was separated from the backing sheet and the glue was bad and I opened the roll straight from the package so I know this to be a fact. It would not even adhere to anything. The glue would not activate and it seemed like when the glue backing was applied the glue had some foreign substance in it that had destroyed the quality of the glue. Like I typed previously, stuff happens.

I don't have but about a dozen rolls of MonoKote, UltraCote and Econokote and one roll of whatever Horizon Hobby sells for Hangar 9 covering. I am just a small time user. Not sure what the Hangar 9 covering was called now. I just use the bad roll of white in small areas, patches mostly, and I can get by with it so for me all is not lost, I have pretty much used most of it for repairs and odds and ends. Something is just wrong with the material is all. I know I could return it for a refund but it is not the end of the world for me and not worth the time to return it.

I will surely try MonoKote again but I do plan to use other coverings as well and do comparisons for my own testing. If I think the material is bad or subpar I will then contact the dealer and discuss it with them. I think my next covering material probably won't be MonoKote though as I would like to step up to something with better quality control standards. Since my time is valuable and limited I want to make the best use of it when I have to cover or repair a plane. To me this makes good sense.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

An excellent post

ramboy

What about Solarfilm?

davidgeorge212

Well thats what I am trying to figure out. The way it sounds to me is that all the people who have turned away from monokote have just gotten bad roll after bad roll after bad roll. If it was hit and miss you would not see quite as strong of a siding toward ultracoat but rather a neutral could go either way type feeling. And to ask a question about your above question, How many rolls do I need to buy from what location before I come across a bad roll? I buy my monokote from local hobby shops in Alabama and I buy whatever stock Tower Hobbies sends me. I dont know if Tower sells "the good stuff" or what but I have never gotten, to my standards, a sub par roll of monokote that has exhibited any bad characteristics that people have stated above and on other threads.

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

Deadeye and davidgeorge212,

You're on,

PM me your addresses and I'll send three 8 1/2x11 swatches to each of you. One each, for putting on a piece of sheet stock, one for putting around a compound curve as in a wing tip, and one for putting over an open frame, like wing ribbing. I would certianly welcome any tips, advice or findings as to the user friendliness/quality of this current roll. My technique could be suffering from lack of use lately but, I remember this covering as being alot easier when I was a novice and doing my very first film covering jobs. More recently I've been doing resin/glass and paint finishes so it could well be that I'm just REALLY rusty at film covering. The self adhesive/trim pieces that I've used for small punture or tear repairs have been fine, it was just a bit disappointing on this latest major rebuild/repair where I'm having to redo a complete model.

I am quite interested to see how it (the MK) goes on for folks who have kept their film covering skills honed. Particularly how well it goes on sheeted surfaces, like a slab type fin/stab, without bubbling/blistering all over the place, and how well it shrinks and pulls over a curved open structure like a wing.

I'm never to proud to admit a mistake or to learn a better way...life's to short to stubbornly defend a faulty opinion, skill or attitude (Maybe I could be enlightened, who knows?)

davidgeorge212

Frets, I will gladly except that challenge (PM sent)

I am just glad I might finally get to see these so called problems everyone else is having with monokote. If I am wrong and I am not able to cover anything with those samples, I will gladly eat my words and take everythinig I said back. I will also take pictures and post them to show you how it turns out.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I have allot of unopened Monocote thats going back, But I to will see what I have left from any rolls of the stuff that would not stick or would not shrink and send it to you all! Its funny because I still use Econocote for the low temp jobs and it still work great! Its the Monocote that has to me lost its way! Bob

Deadeye

PM sent to my new friend frets24, and Bob.

balsa brain

I am about to start a cover job on a fairly big plane that I designed and built. It will be the first plane I have built in about four years. I used to have great results with Monocote but after reading this thread and a few more I am not willing to take a chance with it. The covering job I am going to be doing is mostly white and I will use Ultracote for that.

My question is if I try to use Monocote for some rays on the wing and tail section using the Windex method can anybody tell me if that will work? The only reason for Monocote there is simply the better color selection. Thanks in advance for any help.

Deadeye

Yes, it will work.

frets24

My Feedback: (15)

Samples on the way.

I finally got the fuse done acceptably, though not as well as my original job some 15 years ago. Did the feathers/rays with MonoKote self adhesive trim and that went as well or better than it ever has. Never did any fine detail work with the regular MK so I can't comment on that. Did a midwest ME-109 with several colors and a camo wing in MK and that came out great @12 years ago though.

Old Elmo in MK yellow and true red self adhesive trim. New fuse in new MK yellow and true red self adhesive trim. Midwest 109 (deceased) in all old MK.

davidgeorge212

Well, that looks like another fine monokote job to me.

Deadeye

I agree. I know how hard some of those cuts must've been.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Frets, very nice work...looks great!

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I purchased the last 6 rolls from TowerHobbies (3 MK and 3 EconoKote) and one roll of Orange from Horizon to match my Alpha 40 trainer. (part number HANU877) I have not bought any from the local hobby shop as I would have to mortgage my home to buy it! [X(]

The 6 rolls of MK was purchased at different times about 90 days apart...3 rolls at one time and 3 rolls about 3 months later so I do not know if this came from the same stock supply. I recently purchased one roll of black MK and put on some small pieces but it did not seem as high quality as the other MK although I have not used enough of it to do a decent comparison so I am leaving that one out until more research is done.

The orange I bought from Horizon was simply excellent and had good shrink qualities, average heat retention while shrinking, and I had little to no waste and felt very comfortable using it and achieved the results I was expecting (from an inexperienced coverer like me) . I even put it on a sport plane on a "rounded" fuselage which had bad dips and bows (poor design) in it that would have been impossible to do with the last roll of white MonoKote and the orange went on it perfectly.

I went back and looked and I now realize the roll of orange was UltraCote and yet I never really thought about it until this discussion came to light. The only reason I bought the UltraCote was because I wanted the exact color match. The UltraCote is a few bucks higher in cost and that should be considered as well.

I really hope I can get an opportunity to get some pics posted of my covering endeavors as I believe there is a problem and I can show it via photos if it will come out on the forum ok. I recently did a patch on my small Revolver with the white MK and it was simply horrible so I removed it and did surface prep and waited a day to start over in case I was tired and missing something. So I started again the next day and did it the covering a second time. It was still lousy.

I was so tired after doing it TWICE that I simply just said to heck with it (it was on the bottom anyway) and let it go wrinkled because I wanted it ready to fly again soon. [&:]

I am here to read and learn from others so I can avoid issues just like the one I had with my Revolver patch job. If I had messed up because I am not doing something correctly I would know because I would not be able to turn right around and cover something else the same evening with a different material and do it right.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

It was brought up earlier in the thread that you should use a temp gauge for your irons. I am curious, how many use temp gauges and is that really a vital tool to have? I know guys that can cover beautifully and do not use a temp gauge as they have learned their irons and heat guns well. What are your thoughts? Is that the elusive secret to good covering?

Clay Walters

I have a thermometer but find most of the time I just crank the iron up to 3/4 throttle and watch how the covering is behaving. Since I intend to start a new build (first in years) this thread caught my eye. Seems like this subject won't go away and I believe its the lack of adequate response from the manufacturer that feeds this.

Looking forward to the tests above. I know that the ARF's I've fiddled with covered in Oracover wrinkle everytime a cloud passes over but the stuff is tuff! The mono I did buy 2 years back for a small Lanier Indicator seemed to work just as the stuff I used 20 years ago...I still suck. But I really like the windex application of monokote over itself or Oracover.

I would also appreciate learning how many cover their irons or just work with them bare?

Regards to all,

Clay

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I cover my irons and I think it works so much better for me. Although they do get nasty it just seems to be much smoother working. When the socks get dirty I just drop them in the sink in some soapy water and wash them lightly then just hang them air dry and they seems to last a bit longer.

Another thought just came to mind. We have a man at our field that is sort of considered a repair and covering "guru" as he has been covering planes for approximately 30 years and his work is highly noted. They even call him the "plane doctor." When a plane crashes they immediately seek out the "doctor" and get him to do the repairs if at all possible.

Not too long ago he commented that he simply had to stop using MK some years back because of the poor quality and having to discard and rework so much that is was just a futile effort using the material. I think he mentioned that he used something called "Polycote" in the old days or something like that, but I forget what he uses now.

I plan to ask him what is his favorite and best workable covering. This guy covers some HUGE airplanes so I know he would be a good one to ask about covering materials. He just recently did an 80"er and it was excellent work. One of the war planes he did had many design bends in it, but yet he still did a fantastic job on it. I will get with him and see what his input on this subject. You will rarely ever see a wrinkle in his work.

Top_Gunn

My Feedback: (6)

If that's the way it sounds to you, you haven't been reading the posts very carefully. Many of us have talked about the inconsistency of the Monokote we've bought. My post on this thread described my two most recent Monokote jobs: one excellent, the other awful. It's at least partly a quality control problem.

Since I've never had a bad roll of Ultracote or 21st Century film, why would I want to take a chance on buying Monokote and either getting an unusable roll or having the covering sag later? Especially when I know it won't happen, or at least is a lot less likely to happen, with a different film. Who would take a "neutral" position when choosing between a covering material that's consistently OK and one that's not?

The irritating thing about threads like this is that the people who have had problems with Monokote don't deny that others (or they themselves) have had good experiences, but the Monokote defenders respond by accusing us of not knowing what we're doing. I used Monokote with good results for 20 years before giving up on it, and it's annoying to be called incompetent by people who don't know me.

AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken

My Feedback: (180)

There are enough threads about the quality of Monokote to know without a doubt that there is something "different" about today's rolls. I too had some bad rolls of Monokote that wouldn't stick or shrink. I sent those back to Tower and they promptly replace those rolls.
If everyone that has a bad roll, sends it back, Top Flite will either fix the problem or continue to loose customers. But if we all just sit back and complain, nothing will change.

I still use it - because I think it produces the best finish. Here's a model I just completed with brand new rolls.

davidgeorge212

My First covering job using ultracoat a jerrys little boy.

My second covering job with ultracoat is still a work in progress, Monocoupe 90a