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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: GonzoBonzo on December 04, 2012, 07:05:36 PM
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I am familiar with "balsa filler coat", but not so with sanding sealer. What are the differences?
TIA
Gonzo
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I've never heard of "balsa filler coat". Sanding sealer is clear dope mixed with talcum powder (and maybe mumble-mumble-stearate); you use it as a primer to fill imperfections in the finish on your way to a 20-point finish.
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"Balsa Filler Coat" was a product sold by Aero Gloss many years ago. It was not a sanding sealer, per se, but more of a commercial blend of our homemade brew of clear dope and talcum powder. Personally, I found it to be a waste of time and money. Others' "mileage may vary".....
IMHO, the best actual Sanding Sealer for modeling use was the old Testors brand, but it was Nitrate. Used it on a series of FF Gliders, 1950s-60. Most newbies won't remember that stuff.
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Yes Mike, Pactra made both. I'm curious about the differences.
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Yes Mike, Pactra made both. I'm curious about the differences.
The basic difference was filler coat had much more filling agent , and was thicker than sealer, the sealer coat had much less sealing or filling agent in it.
Randy
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Thanks Randy.
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I read, in an old source about how to finish FF hand launch glider wings. Put on a thin coat of clear dope, then put on thick Calamine Lotion. let dry, sand smooth, leaving lotion only in cracks or grain, then a couple more thin coats of dope. S?P
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Wow. Never heard of that one. Makes a certain amount of sense though...filling the grain and all. Might cause a problem with warping since calamine lotion is water-based (?). I would give it a try, except for the fact that at this age I'm well beyond the HLG days I once loved.
Of course there are always Catapault-Launched gliders. May have to just check this out.
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Wow. Never heard of that one. Makes a certain amount of sense though...filling the grain and all. Might cause a problem with warping since calamine lotion is water-based (?). I would give it a try, except for the fact that at this age I'm well beyond the HLG days I once loved.
Of course there are always Catapault-Launched gliders. May have to just check this out.
Catapult is great! There seems to be two common classes - one with hand-held catapults, the other with huge and powerful poles (with guy wires) and a MASSIVE rubber that looks like a Wakefield motor.
I can still out-arm most of the locals but I prefer catapult. For the hand-held version, it's a very tricky optimization to decide the length of the rubber and how long your arm is. There's a maximum length requirement, but it's not necessarily the best choice since you want to be able to stretch it near max, and sometimes a shorter one is better. My best results were with wings of either 1/8 or even 3/32 and a span of about 16". That get's it right on up there and of course I have access to huge piles of <4 lb wood. I have also used 1/8 balsa fuselages with .003 carbon strips as reinforcement (which I noted all the local experts copied for the next year).
But definitely plan on using a chase bike, or running a lot, because they are pretty potent and marginally too small to carry a DT.
Brett
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Install one of the micro radios with rudder only. LL~ LL~ I guess I was never a true free flight guy as I never doped any, rubber power or glider.