How to??? Control surface removal
 

I need to recover a giant bipe (lots of hinges). It has Dubro plastic hinges epoxied into all of the surfaces. What is the best way to remove the surfaces? I was thinking of Dremeling the ends off the steel pins and removing the pins and replacing it with a long piece of music wire when the time comes to put them back. Then I noticed the gap is too small and I will also be grinding away at wood. How would you go about handling this? Thanks in advance.

RE: How to??? Control surface removal
 

Cut each plastic hinge on one side with a sharp hobby knife blade.

Take off the surface and cut the pivot point off the hinge.

Locate the new hinges at another location.

You're basically leaving the original hinge in the surface, except for the pivot point.

RE: How to??? Control surface removal
 

I would do it the same way, but Instead of relocating the hinges, I'd drill a hole right where they are and replace them with Robart Hinge Points.

Something else to consider, is to not remove them at all, and just cover around them instead.

RE: How to??? Control surface removal
 

What I did was to cut away the wood (long rectangular pieces) that held the hinges on the moving surface. I then epoxied new rectangular pieces back into the moving surface, re-covered and drilled hole for the hinges that remained attached to the non-moving surface such as the horizontal stab. This was done on a quarter scale model and the glue and hinges have shown no signs of fatigue thus far.