gorilla glue

[John Desrosiers]

Dose enyone use gorilla glue building planes. If so, can I use it to glue metal control horns into balsa flaps and elevators. still new to this.   THANK YOU

[Tim Wescott]

Someone will come on and say "I do!".

I've only used it to repair a hollow-fuselage profile that has been on it's last legs for several years and dozens of flights.  The last "last legs" problem was that the fuse was starting to delaminate around the wing.  Peeling off and patching the outer layer would have been a pain, so I just shoved the tip of the glue bottle into the break and put in some glue -- from the way it foamed out I'm sure it filled that compartment.

I haven't tried it for a nice plane because it's hard to control the amount of foaming you get.  the foaming is really nice when you have gaps to fill, but a pain when the job is done and you have all that glue that you need to chip off or make excuses for.  Particularly given that the glue is much harder than the balsa you're trying to chip it off of.

If you're gluing the usual music wire 'U' shaped horns, then you almost (only almost) don't need glue at all -- in fact, when you use lucky boxes, you don't glue the horns to the surface at all.  The most secure way to glue these would be to sand lightly, then immediately epoxy them into the hole.  CA glue would probably work for a while, but I would expect it to break out before the rest of the plane was worn out.  I've always done this with epoxy.

[Wynn Robins]

gorilla glue will work for flap horns etc- BUT - as Tim mentioned - it foams and expands - and if you dont have the horns taped in REAL tight - the glue will push them out as it expands. 

Gorilla glue is a pain in the butt to clean up as well (it says water clean up - but they are kidding) - you are better off using epoxy and then wiping away any excess with denatured alcohol

[Bob Johnson]

The problem with Gorilla glue is the foaming. I use epoxy for the horn placement you mentioned. A little goes a long way, I coat a cut off Q-tip (about the same diameter) and stick it in the hole to work the epoxy all the way down. Then lightly coat the horn and insert it in the flap or elevator, wipe off excess and allow to cure.
   I do like the Gorilla glue Dries white 2X faster cure glue pen (no not the super glue). Much less foaming, good bond, 30 to 60 min set time. I used it to glue a blue foam leading edge core to a 1/16 in ply spare. Plenty of work time to align and tape the core in position. seems to have worked great. Photo shows the leading edge joint and bell crank detail of my TEOSAWKI clone. Hope this helps,

Bob

[Clancy Arnold]

John
There are two types of Gorilla Glue, Foaming and non foaming.  I used the foaming type on the build of my Jeannin Stahltaube. (See Scale section)  A big advantage is if you are scratch building in lieu of Lazar Cut parts it corrects the cutting errors for you.  Since I was redesigning the kit I had to re-cut almost every part.

Yes it is much harder than balsa so clean up the excess as you go along.  

Clancy

[proparc]

This is the stuff for the Saito "big block". Haven't found better.

[Garf]

I used it to laminate 3 sheets of 1/8" together to make the fuselage for the Stretched Galaxy, and I used it to assemble the Fuselage including motor mounts for my Ringmaster. I like it.

[Michael Massey]

I have used it where I want penetration and filling.  As all have pointed out, it expands and if you let it harden before cleaning the excess, it is a real problem.  I clean immediately after applying and several times over the next 20 or so minutes, or at least until the expansion seems to slow down to insignificant.

The real important issue is making sure the items you are gluing together are well clamped in place or otherwise prevented from moving my the expanding glue.  Given those two caveats, there are some applications it is well suited to.

[Guy B Jr]

Bob Johnson

You ought to start a separate thread on the TEOSAWKI clone to inspire the ones of us that would like to build one.

[David Shad]

You have a plan for that clone???   If not we need to do one...lots of interest
in that project.

[Chris Brainard]

I use Gorilla glue all the time to laminate doublers. Since most of my stuff is scratch or plans built, I glue the two pieces together as rectangular "blanks". Everything is well clamped, and yes, there is a lot of glue foaming around the edges. No problem since it all gets cut off anyway after I cut the fuselage to it's final shape. The area where the plywood doubler ends is usually near the high point of the wing. Once the wing cut out is made there is very little glue foam out to clean up. A razor sharp wood chisel usually takes it off in one pass. I like the penetration of the glue. So far, have never had any problems with de-lamination.
Chris

[jfv]

It's great for gluing wing skins on foam cores.  Light and strong.  Also cures in a vacuum bag if you mist the cores.

[Will Hinton]

There are a total of 24 Crossover Custom guitars and basses around the US that were built with Gorilla glue, no problems in the 9 years since I started using it.  Those were, of course, hardwood, maple and walnut, so for balsa?  It'll hold.  BUT...the expanding the rest have noted is a pain for planes.  The only place I use it for planes is for foam, it fills all the nasty little places where the beads tore out and is perfect for that.
Will

[john e. holliday]

I use it for laminations of sheet wood like fuselages.  It will also show you the pin holes in the balsa.  It makes for very stiff laminations.   

[Garf]

Gorilla glue at work.

[pipemakermike]

Photo shows the leading edge joint and bell crank detail of my TEOSAWKI clone. Hope this helps,
Bob

Hi Bob

Do you have more pictures of this model, it looks interesting.