Places for Gorilla glue for repairs

[Will Hinton]

At the nats this year I made a "slight" miscalculation at the bottom of the second outside loop of the square eight - I leveled off at 6 inches, but the crown of the L pad is 6 1/2 inches so I "sort of" ran out of altitude and my 4 year old original Crosswinds suffered a bit of a bruise.  The only damage was the rudders (ask Randy Smith about TRBS) and the canopy.  The molded 3/32" balsa top deck split on both sides of the rudders for about 12 inches forward, starting right at the tail.
When I finished removing the top deck to the forward point of the rudder fins I had a pretty nice fitting piece to go back in after new rudders were set in place while off the ship.  Now; knowing this fit wasn't going to be perfect all the way on both sides I decided to use the expansion properties of my favorite guitar adhesive - Gorilla Glue.  I put a really tiny bead along the edges, fit the piece back in the opening after inspecting for structural damage, and taped it down.
The repair is great!  Solid, with all the tiny imperfections of the fit filkled in with the expanded glue and I'm able to slice the extra glue off with a # 11 blade.  Seeing how little the glue expanded out I know the inside bead is almost non-existent. 
I've used good old GG for foam now for quite a while because of this expansion property, but now see other stunt uses for it.
Blessings,
Will

[Steve Helmick]

How's the shelf life with this stuff? I recall something about being sure it's fresh. How do you test some to see if it's old & NLG? If it's no longer good to use, how to dispose of it, in a "green" manner?  Steve

[Ralph Wenzel (d)]

Gorillas last longer if the bottle is inverted (to exclude air) between uses. I have some going on three years that's still usable. Always remember to apply the glue to one surface and dampen the other surface. As far as disposal, the manufacturer claims that, after complete cure, the stuff is inert. That suggests to me that you can just toss it in the trash. (But I'm willing to be wrong about this . . .)

[ray copeland]

Gap filling at it's best for me!! Just used on a 1/2a combat plane broken boom, wooden dowel did not quite fit tight, GG to the rescue, good as new!! Also used on my car door to hold on trim , got some dripped on my head somehow, didn't know till i tried a comb thru my hair , yikes!!! Oh yeah, door trim is still tight  hair is not!!

[Russell Shaffer]

I had a little problem with a scratch built Flite Streak a while back.  The engine quit in a wingover, the lines went slack and straight in it went.  The left wing came off, just held by the lead outs, and the front of the fuselage was floppy.  The fuselage was broken between the doublers back of the motor mounts.  The broken off wing would still fit in the fuselage cutout, so I poured some Gorilla into the LE and TE breaks and stuck it back in.  For the fuselage I drilled some 1/8 holes from the top and bottom and squirted them full of Gorilla.  I didn't recover the wing, just patched the torn places.  It has been flying this way for over a year now, and I never could tell any difference from the pre-crash performance.  It IS kind of ugly. 

[Will Hinton]

I can't attest to shelf life because I use so much of the stuff in my work, but I think Ralph is correct concerning it being inert after cure.  I've also applied it without the water treatment to the opposite surface on a foam project last year because I couldn't get the water down into the narrow slot without flooding the area which would have been somewhat detrimantel, in my opinion at the time, and it still foamed up and cured okay, it just took longer to do so.  I later had occasion to seperate and inspect that joint (don't ask) and the bond seemed strong.  I've come to think that the water does two things - for hardwood, it causes the grain to expand, as we all know, therefore allowing greater penetration of the surface, and also reacts with the Gorilla to cause greater foaming/expansion.  But - like Ralph, I'm willing to be wrong about this.
Will