Ross,
I have found the Easy Hinges to be very strong and reliable when used properly and no flutter exists. The hinges MUST be installed with thin CA using only a few drops per side. If you use too much glue i.e. coating them more than once or use medium or thick CA, you will cause the hinge to develop a brittle portion along the hinge line.

Flutter can also cause premature hinge failure which can be brought on by too much hinge gap or sloppiness in your control linkage.

I suspect one of these lead to your hinge failure.

Big Phil
AMA 6762

phil is right,

I've used the easy hinges for my 4* too and never had any problem with them. They are very reliable.
Maybe more reliable than the regular hinges because they don't have a hinge-pin that could fall out.

It could be the glue thing Phil mentioned or it's some kind of rare production failure.

good luck with your 4*, it will fly great, I know it does!

richard

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Originally posted by: bigphil
Ross,
I have found the Easy Hinges to be very strong and reliable when used properly and no flutter exists. The hinges MUST be installed with thin CA using only a few drops per side. If you use too much glue i.e. coating them more than once or use medium or thick CA, you will cause the hinge to develop a brittle portion along the hinge line. &lt;snip&gt;<hr></blockquote>
I too have used the EZ hings for years with no issues, if used properly ( show above) I only had one fail, and it was because I used too much thin CA. When it puddles and hardens, it will create tiny "Razor blades" that will cut the hing. This is what happend on the one that I had that failed. I looked at it with a magnifying glass, and it had a serated cut. With the naked eye, it looked smooth.

I have had Great Planes EZ hing clones fail big time. They delaminated, and the fuzzy part stayed in the surfaces, but the plastic inner part came right out.

One safegaurd against the "cracking ca" problem is to mark the hinge on both sides in the center with a wax crayon or china marker. This serves two purposes. It gives you a visual orientation mark to make sure the hinge remains centered and it also resists ca along the "bend" point so it doesn't harden and cause the hinge to crack.

Thanks everyone for your input. It probably was the too much glue thing. It was my first kit, so I probably over did it.