My wing tubes are VERY tight on my composite BobCat, it takes significant force to pull the wings off, to the point that im not comfortable with. I was thinking of just sanding the tubes down a bit ... any one else experiencing this ? how are you dealing with this ??


thanx,

Wojtek

Take a dowl rod that is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the wing tube. Tape a piece of 180- 240 grit paper to the rod and then roll the paper up around the road until it fit in the tube with interference. Use this assembly as a hone to slighty enlarge the wing tube. It works great!

Waxing the aluminum tube helps also.

When i drilled the hole into the wing to mount the wings, i got metal shavings into phenolic tube. I didnt clean them out before I inserted the wing on and scored it up making it very hard to put on and off. It was a pain to fix, but i cleaned out the phenolic tube and sanded the tubes.
They are still tight, but work fine.
Scott

My comp Bob Cat was the same way- problem was solved with a spray can of silicone lube from the local auto parts store. Spray the alum tubes and also put some inside the phenolic tubes in the wing. Worked great for me.
Good Luck,
Al Watson

thanks for the info guys .... i noticed most of the friction was at the tube ends .. i sanded these down a bit and its slightly better ... i though of using a silicone spray or wax, but im afraid of it soaking into the tubes and causing them to swell up from the liquid ( i know this is a no no on some of the giant scale planes , however im not sure if these are the same types of wing tubes .. ) I might try a light mist of TriFlow and see if that helps a bit more ...

regards,


Wojtek

Ditto to Steve's suggestion. My KC had tight fits and the wax helped a bunch.

JS

I have noticed the same problem, but over time and usage it is much better. I am going to try the wax or silicone though.
While, I have not checked it I believe the tubes are not quite parallel. No matter, it is still the easiest flying turbine out there
and it is an ARF.

Dee Miller

Go with the silicon it works great