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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Motorman on April 14, 2014, 05:35:23 PM
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I covered my profile Tanager with Brodak iron on film and shortly after it's all wrinkled up where it goes over solid balsa like the tail and fuselage. The plane flys good but it looks not good. Should I have used a wood pecker, any tips on how to fix it or prevent it on my next plane?
Thanks,
MM
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When you cut the Monokote piece for any area that has compound curves make it big enough oversized to grab and you can pull it over curve ... keep working the heat and watch the iron temperature. New Monokote is giving me good results.
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Sounds like your gonna need careful application of a heatgun and oven mitt to shrink and press it down. Poke a hole in the bubbles with a straight pin and push the air to the pinhole. Brodak iron on covering is tuff(hard) to use.
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It was smooth when I put it on, it wrinkled up from the sun I think.
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Go slow, tack it down and apply low heat. If any bubbles appear, pierce them with a pin and then re-tack. This profile Yak-9 was covered completely, top & bottom, with Monokote. Worked very well.....though not nearly as well as the full Stunt models of Grady Widener, whose Monokote finishes are absolutely superb.
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When putting on any kind of iron on covering, always pull the covering as tight as you can get it, even on solid balsa or sheeted surfaces. I think MonoKote shrinks the most at about 17% and all the rest are well behind that, so you want to save as much of that as you can and not rely on the shrinking to get rid of wrinkles. Pull it tight like you are trying to stretch it as you tack it down in place. Once it's all tacked down and you are happy with that result, start in the middle of the area and work your way to the edges and work any air out as you go. The wrinkles will happen no matter how good of a job you do, but will not be as bad, and you will have more of the "shrinkability" left for touch ups later. Heat cycles from going into the sun then the cool house or garage is what makes it want to loosen up.Like anything else in life, it takes practice to do a good job. Iron on covering jobs, if done well, are almost as much work as a paint job in some respects, depending on how elaborate the cover design is. Might go a bit faster, and not as smelly, but definately some work. This is what I have learned and experienced over the years.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee