Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I don't know if anyone has tried this. I am sure they have. I can't be the first.

Personally I hate installing CA hinges. They never seem to hold in well. I do all the tricks like open the slot a little more. Use the hinges with the split in the center to let the glue wick in better, but still they do not seem to hold as well as they should. Well this weekend I was building a 27% H9 Cap 232. It is the old Alitallia one. I was out of Robarts and wanted to get it going so I decided to use the CA hinges. As usual when I installed the first aileron and pulled on it hard to check it, it started to pull out. It took some wood with it and I could see the glue only soaked in about 3/16 of an inch. I had just bought some of the new Quick Cure Gorilla glue so I figured I would see how that worked. I took a block of balsa and cut 3 slits in it. On the first I used CA. On the second I used Gorilla and only stuck the hing in about 1/4". On the 3rd I used Gorilla and put the hing in the correct depth. The method I used was to dip the hing in water. Slide the hinge in the slot to wet the wood. I then removed the hinge and used an epoxy brush and spread a thin layer of Gorilla glue on 1/2 of it. I stuck in in the slot and wiped away and excess. The Quick Cure only foams for a few minutes, so cleanup is easy. I waited 2 hours and then grabbed a pliers. The CA pulled out fairly easy. The Gorilla hinge that was only in 1/4" pulled out far harder and took a lot of wood with it. The last one that was in the correct depth is still in the block. It would rip the hinge appart before it would pull out.

I ended up putting all of the hinges in the same way in the plane. It worked great. I just glued one side at a time just like a Robart hinge. That made it so easy. And I know they will never pull out.

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

Interesting that you tried this. Since I became extremely allergic to CA I thought I'd run a similar experiment using Titebond III on hinges that are meant for thin CA. I have yet to try it but if it works it would sure be helpful to those of us that can no longer use CA.

Of course there's still the old pinning with round toothpicks (:-)

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I use it with the Dubro hinges all the time with no failures to date. Last night as a matter of fact.
A trick I do is take a syringe and flatten the nose with some heat so I get a small slit in the end and can shove it in the groove and squish the glue in.
I also punch a hole in the hinge to act as a pin when the glue kicks.
The nice part about the GG is that when it kicks usually it doesn't stick all that well to the covering. Usually I try to time the glueing to be the last thing I do before I go to bed and in the am I work the hinges back and forth to loosen things up a bit, followed by needle nose pliers to pop the goober out.

One key step I didn't mention is using vasalene at the actual hinge point so the glue won't seep in and lock the whole thing down. Got that one the hard way.:eek:

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I use radio south pro ca hinges never had them pull loose

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

Vicman's hint is essential to the use of Gorilla Glue. Use a syringe to control the amount of glue. If you don't the stuff may distort your covering or worse. I don't know of a formula. This is a case where experience pays.

Nevertheless I love it because it gives me time to align both surfaces and I've never had a failure.
Walt

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I would think that the gorilla glue would expand in the slot and firmly hold the hinge..... that stuff is TOUGH !! great idea.... I am always worried about having time positioning and getting enough CA back into the slot to the back of the hinge.... with GG you could inject the hinge slot with GG and coat the hinge, and slide it in there..... Might have to give it a go next time I install hinges

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I'm with Jetmech-Radio South Hinges and thin CA-wild horses can't pull them out.

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

a 3rd for the radio south hinges. I have seen some horrendous crashed and the hinges did not fail. The entire trailingedge is pulled out, but the hinges are there!

RE: Gorilla Glue for CA Hinges
 

I use the Great Planes pinned hinges, and I locate them in the slot, and drill a hole for insertion of a round toothpick. I moisten the pick, generally by just having several in my mouth, and simply invert the bottle and insert the pick (in a close-fitting hole I drill in the tip for just this reason) to pick up a bit of glue, and insert through the hinge and hole. If you keep everything snug, the glue only expands into the hinge slot, and there's no glue to clean off the outside. Trim flush when it's dry and I haven't had one fail yet.