Covering Cambered Wings?

[Aerominded]

There are a lot of neat looking vintage designs out there! Looks like a lot of them have cambered wing ribs- what is the technique for covering them without rib stitching? Can it be done with modern iron on covering or would you need to use silk etc.?
:)

[benlo2d]

There are a lot of neat looking vintage designs out there! Looks like a lot of them have cambered wing ribs- what is the technique for covering them without rib stitching? Can it be done with modern iron on covering or would you need to use silk etc.?
:)

start at the front and work your way back, making sure it is attached to all
ribs as you go. Low heat coverings seem to work best.

Good luck, Ben

[Matt Dyer]

I was also concerned about just this issue when I covered my Playboy which has an under cambered wing. I used Monocote, but I first applied a coat of Balsaloc, which is a water based glue (available from Hobby Lobby) that is designed for coverings that do not have glue on them. It is, of course, heat activated. This method worked like a charm. The covering stuck and did not pull up anywhere when I shrunk it tight. Could I have gotten away without the extra glue? I don't know for sure. I do know this worked and took the worry out of the operation.

Matt Dyer

[tim hooper]

Aerominded,

Like Matt, I've used Balsaloc on undercambered wings, and then covered the wing with Litespan.

I started by attaching the covering along the spar first, and then worked outwards from there.

tim

[BMatthews]

This came up on another board I'm on so I cut n' pasted it here for you....

I've done lots of undercambered wings with tissue and plastics. The trick is to glue it to a spar near the middle first and then work out from there to the leading edge and then back to the next spar or the trailing edge. Tack it lightly to the ribs as you go. If there are no center spars then I just drape the material in place and tack it to the tip and root rib and tack it from the centers of the ribs to the leading and trailing edges. Use low temp at first that just allows tacking but won't stretch the material or make it shrink. Also use the tip of the iron or (probably the best way) use the little trim shoe iron to avoid the open areas alltogether. Lift the covering and work out the wrinkles as you go and do try to avoid any diagonal pulling that'll cause a warp to pull in later. Smooth and loose but not baggy is what you're aiming for. Once it's all tacked down and smooth turn up the temp and re-seal al the spars, ribs and edges down really well. For shrinking you need to use the covering iron and just try to do each little separate bay one at a time while trying to avoid the ribs, spars and edges as much as possible to prevent re-softening the glue. Heat guns are definetly out, no way, nyet, verbotten, nuh uh, pas d'utilise.

PS: if you're using some covering that needs Balsarite or Balsaloc first as an adhesive then be sure to apply two or maybe even three good coats to all the spars and ribs where it's concave. If it recurve out to convex it doesn't need adhesive in those areas. The fabrics especially should have three coats as you need enough adhesive to flow up into the weave. For Mono or Ultra cotes or glue backed fabrics you don't need anything.

[Aerominded]

Thanks for the great tips guys! I look forward to giving it a try!