Building Tips and technical articles. > Paint and finishing
Silk ?
Tom Luciano:
Gentlemen,
I know there are a lot of threads on this forum regarding silk. One question i would like answered on the old colored Sig silk we use to buy for a $1.00 a yard.
what was the weight of it (momo)?
What is the weight of Esaki or todays Sig?
I'm starting a model that I believe the silk was a integral part of the stucture and want to use something comparable in strength. H^^
Thank you
Tom
Paul Smith:
http://www.dharmatrading.com/fabric/silk/habotai.html
I can't give you the mm weight for the old dolla-a-yard silk, but the current price is $25 a yard.
The line above is where I get mine, for $2.65 a yard, except I buy in bigger lots and get a price break.
It's 5 mm, the lightest available. Maybe a tad heavier than Sig/Brodak, but the real weight is in the dope and maybe it requires less of it. My 0.1 ounce postal scale can't even weigh the silk I use to cover a plane.
Tom Luciano:
Sorry. when i mentioned the weight i was looking for a correspondence with strength. As in lightweight and Heavyduty. the esaki sig silk i have now is #3 light weight. I don't know how that corresponds to Sig colored silk in the past or the 5mm or 8mm
of Darma or thai today.
Tom
Randy Ryan:
--- Quote from: Paul Smith on January 15, 2010, 09:59:34 AM ---http://www.dharmatrading.com/fabric/silk/habotai.html
I can't give you the mm weight for the old dolla-a-yard silk, but the current price is $25 a yard.
The line above is where I get mine, for $2.65 a yard, except I buy in bigger lots and get a price break.
It's 5 mm, the lightest available. Maybe a tad heavier than Sig/Brodak, but the real weight is in the dope and maybe it requires less of it. My 0.1 ounce postal scale can't even weigh the silk I use to cover a plane.
--- End quote ---
This is beautiful silk although it does not skrink as much as the lighter silks we're used to, the dyes Dharma offers also result in brilliant colors and its still cheaper then the "hobby" silk we can buy.
EddyR:
Let me give you my experience with silk going back to around 1950. Most of the silk I got in the 50's I won as a prize in contests. At one contest I won 20 bags of silk. They added bags of silk along with kits instead of trophies all the way to 6th place. Most of that silk came from a Parachute Company in NJ. I think they supplied almost all the silk used for model aircraft in the 1940's-1960's. I put silk on the way I was told to do it. I always wet the silk in a pan of water or under a faucet and wrung it out and laid it on the wing wet and using glue in the dope sealed at around the edges and sometimes sealing it to the ribs also. The Ringmaster and the Chief needed the silk sealed or glued down to the ribs. About 25 years ago I started laying the silk on the wing dry and spraying water on it and then pulling out all the wrinkles and sealing it down. About that time people started having problems with silk not getting tight. I didn't have any problems until maybe 10 years ago and I went back to washing the silk and all the problems went away. I think maybe the problem was there even in 1950 so everyone wet the silk first. The silk stretches when wet and shrinks when dry a lot more if it is soaked under water. I have some very old silk that is stiff like the modern stuff and I think something was added to it so they could cut it. I still have some 1950's Checkerboard silk and it is soft.It was made by the Parachute Company. Some of the silk sold in the 70's was soft and was very poorly cut. Sometimes the bag marked one yard would be longer than one yard and sometimes shorter with poorly cut edges. The stiff silk is easy to cut. Many silk coverings from the 60-80's was part Rayon and I liked them also. One covering that is never mentioned is Nylon and it was used a lot on combat models but was heaver than silk but the grain was closer and it used less dope. It was very much like the heavy silks sold for hobby use. We keep seeing threads about loose silk after the first cote of dope. Cut the silk into the size panels you need and rinse it under water and apply it wet and it will stay tight.
EddyR
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