Unhinged
 

Howdy,
Recovering my big hots. The previous owner used giant scale pinned hinges. In doing so he notched the control surfaces to accept the hinges.

My original plan was to place the new hinges in the gap between the old hinges & fill the notches.
I used my dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to melt most of the old hinges. Worked pretty good but would not remove enough material to allow the new hinge to fit properly. After looking around I decided to use a torch & a putty knife to remove the hinges. If you take your time & go slow this works pretty well.

My only problem is that now the hinge slots are a little sloppy. Trying to figure out whether to use epoxy or gorilla glue. I have plenty of experience with epoxy, none with gorilla glue.

One of my tips with epoxy is to use a clear straw that has been flattened on one end. I suck up epoxy to near the top (hence the need for a clear straw) then insert the straw into the slot & push some epoxy in. Will this work well enough? or do I need to use the expanding gorilla glue?

Thanks,
Joe

RE: Unhinged
 

hmmm, maybe better to plug the holes with a dowel and re-drill.

RE: Unhinged
 

they are flat hinges.

RE: Unhinged
 

Yes, that will work.

Or drill holes and use Robart Hinge points

RE: Unhinged
 

Joe.... Or you could just fold CA Hinges over the new pinned hinges and CA em into the oversized Slots...course rough up the glueing surface of the Pinned hinges... I've had the same problem. Yes the Pinned hinges do wear out, mine only after 14 years...though.
It's the best use of the CA hinge that I have found.....heheh other than glueable motor shims!

RE: Unhinged
 

I'm doing a similar job right now. I drilled the toothpicks out with 1/8" drill bit. fitted 1/32" plywood into the existing slots and glued with thin CA, then pinned wth 1/8" dowel. In my case the eleveator leading edge is 3/8" thick and I was trying to restore some of the origianl strength as removing the old hinges left a slot larger than I was will to accept.

RE: Unhinged
 

I do understand the strength issue esp. in the bigger sizes and the super hot dog aircraft.

If you are in doubt, at all...... then rebuild the affected part and replace it...though not a nice prospect sometimes.

RE: Unhinged
 

Mikey likes these :

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=34042

Wondermus for injecting just the right amount of epoxy into the holes for Robart hinges, no reason they won't work just as well for Klett type hinges.

You can clean the syringes by flushing with denatured alcohol and get a bunch of uses out of 'em.