Readers' tips & tricks

FINDING AND SEALING HINGE SLOTS

After you have covered a model with either a fabric or a film covering, it is often difficult to find the hinge slots and then cut open the covering around them. Sealing the covering down around the opening is also difficult. A good way to do both of these things at one time is to use a fine-tipped soldering iron to melt through the covering, which also seals it to the wood surrounding the hinge slots. This technique also works when you want to seal around switch openings and other holes in your model.

Vernon Olson, Kane, PA

MILK-JUG PROTECTION

You'll be able to safely beach your seaplane if you protect the bottoms of the pontoons with plastic strips cut from an empty plastic milk jug. Cut the corners from a gallon jug and glue them into place, as shown, with a waterproof glue such as Zap-a-dap-a-Goo.

Charles Weigel, Pulaski, NY

PERFECT FIN ALIGNMENT

When you are ready to glue the vertical fin onto your model, and you want it perfectly aligned with the fuselage's centerline, use string! Fasten a piece of brightly colored string (2h times longer than your fuselage) to the center of the nose with a straight pin. Use slow-setting epoxy for the fin-to-fuselage glue joint, and pin the fin into place with one straight pin at its trailing edge and one at its leading edge. Run the string from the nose to one side of the fin, and then around the fin's trailing edge and back to the nose. The string now forms a very long and shallow V with the fin between the two lengths of string. Move the fin's LE back and forth until the string lays flush against both its sides, and then the fin will be perfectly aligned. Add a few more pins to secure the fin in place and let the epoxy cure.

Ron Fikes, Palo Alto, CA

LIGHTWEIGHT CONTROL RODS

If you want an ultra-lightweight control rod for an indoor or park-flyer model, try this. Run a 2-56 tap through a small nylon clevis and then wrap a 3/8-inch-wide strip of tissue paper around the end of a thin carbon-fiber rod until it is just thick enough to fit into the hole in the clevis. Put a few drops of thin CA on both ends of the paper where it sticks out from the clevis, and the adhesive will wick into the clevis and bond it securely in place. You can adjust the pushrod's length by adding a threaded-brass coupler to the servo end of the rod; wrap tissue paper around the rod until it fits snugly into the coupler and then add the CA.

Sam Golden, Speedway, IN

FLOPPY DISC BRAKES

Realistic-looking aircraft-- brakes' backing plates can be easily made by taking apart an old 3.5-- inch floppy disc. Pry apart the plastic covering and remove the floppy disc. At the disc's center is a metal drive plate that is perfect for the job. Drill the small square opening in its center to the size of your axle, and slip it into place between the wheel and the strut; then glue it into place. You don't even have to paint it silver!

Scott Eaton, San Leandro, CA

EASY INSERTS

Holes in the wood blocks that support engine-- cowl-attachment screws are often stripped out or slit. By drilling a hole in the block and then inserting and gluing a short length of inner Nyrod into it, you can make snug-fitting inserts that accept the cowl-attachment screws. Should an insert strip out, you can easily replace it with a new one.

James McCoul, Sterling Hts., MI

EYEHOOK TAILSKID

It is often difficult to find very small tailwheels for small electric- and 1/2Apowered models. A good substitute is to screw a small metal eyehook into the bottom of the model's fuselage just in front of the rudder. Since it's round, it looks like a tailwheel and since it's made of metal, it lasts forever-- even if you fly off pavement. For a more scale look, dip the eyehook into epoxy and when the adhesive has set, paint it black so it looks more like a rubber tire.

Frank Harper Jr., Eaton, OH

PERMANENT PAPER SCRIBER

If you build from a plan, one of the easiest ways to duplicate parts without cutting up the plan is to put carbon paper under the plan and then trace the outline of the part directly onto the wood. This scratch-builder takes an ink tube out of a ballpoint pen, and he replaces it after he has removed the ink with water or alcohol. After scribbling on scrap paper to remove the very last bit of ink, he's left with a roller-ball-tipped scriber. Use the scriber as a tracing tool to transfer the outlines of the plan parts. It's a lot neater than using a pen; an ink-covered plan tends to smudge when you build your model.

Ward Kelly, Sidell, LA

Copyright Air Age Publishing Sep 2001
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