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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Steve Fitton on May 09, 2008, 12:17:06 PM
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This may or may not be a dumb question, but I just checked through all the threads here and it hasn't quite come up. I've built many foam wings the Dixon way, and putting on the 1/4 trailing edge cap is the very first thing you do. If I am building a fully sheeted foam wing, Do I put the trailing edge cap on before or after I skin the wing. Or, does it make no difference?
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Either way works BUT if you put the sheeting over it it will be stronger for hinges. But if you put some sort of piece in the wing to glue the hinges to it won't matter. It's just that the trailing edge just butt glued never really made me feel confident.
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Oh and if you use cloth or $$$cote hinges its a non issue.
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Steve having tried it both ways it really doesn't seem to make any real difference at all. Putting a trailing edge on the foam core protects the foam from getting all dinged up. Applying the sheeting over the TE makes it a bit easier to get a smooth even finish in that area. Trying to sand down a glue joint between the TE and wing sheeting will sometimes leave a ridge that is very hard to get rid of. Strength wise is makes no difference. Any decent glue joint will be stronger than the balsa wood and if the crash is bad enough to damage the sheeting/TE joint you probably won't really care since the plane will be a total loss anyway.