flightmode

When hot gluing foam, sometimes you end up with globs of glue or it is very uneven along the joint. Now, you can make it look professional by using an steam iron or heat sealing iron(monocote iron) at the right temperature. Try it on a sample first.

What you do is draw only one way and then wipe off the excess glue in a paper towel or something that absorbs the glue. Then do it again until it is all disappears. Makes your paint jobs look professional.

I also found out that if you raise the temp of the monocote iron, you can melt the bluecore foam and shape the material like rounding the nose. Work in a ventilated area.

road king 97

I clean up epoxy and ca with acitone ,i t should work on hot glue. Alcohol should be fine to but not as strong as acitone. It wont hurt the covering but if you have decals it will take the colors off. Before gluing ,try putting tape around things were you dont want glue then just pull it off later , This will probobly eat foam so be careful to only clean the covering with it. joe

baz49exe

I've just started using a hot glue gun to stick sheet depron models together and up to now I have put up with the uneven, over filled, hot glue joints that I seem to produce.
Today I tried gluing the joint then withdrawing the glue stick from the gun to produce an empty space within the gun chamber. I then tried pushing the hot tip of the gun forwards slowly along the rough joint. To my amazement the melted glue is sucked back into the gun removing the excess and really cleaning up the joint. Plus it recycles the excess glue that I don't need on the model.

CNY_Dave

Butterknife heated over a candle.

dahawk

I've recycled some CF rods from my retired foamie F-22 and want to clean off the glue. Could I soak them in acetone? The servos also have hot glue residue. Been picking away with my exacto knife.

Hawk

cyclops2

Heated paint scraper.
Inside corners. Heated pieces of metal tubing & a flame to reheat it. OUTSIDE

kyleservicetech

Before retiring, I ordered several 40 watt soldering irons equipped with a razor blade for removing decals that customers put on our $$$$ controls. Worked like a charm, but they were very hard to find. Harbor Freight has one, but it's got complaints about being flimsy. http://www.harborfreight.com/hot-bla...ver-65057.html

That would probably also work nicely with hot glue. You can always use a heat gun on the stuff, but that heat gun will melt any foam within half a foot.

CHELLIE

The best thing to do to avoid a hot glue mess, is to not use hot glue, its to darn heavy and messy, build with 5 and 30 min Epoxy, you will be glad you did i only use hot glue to hold in servos that have been wraped with masking tape

cyclops2

I used hot glue at a flying field for a crappy patch job a few times.

I ALWAYS removed the stuff when I got home. Compared to a Alcohol cleaning & Titebond II or Silicone rubber or a VERY VERY thin coat of Epoxy. Hot glue is my last choice.

riverrat

WoW!
Barry

I am going to try that!!!

Regards
Jimmy

dahawk

I agree with Chellie on the expoxy versus hot glue but for us lazybones, oh well, I'm a user.

I did make a great discovery last night thanks to Crashalott who had recommended "Awesome Cleaner" from Dollar Tree to remove paper from the cheapie Dollar Tree foam board. I recycled my hot glued CF rods and horns from my now retired F-22 by mixing some "Awesome" cleaner and hot water in a large plastic 2lb coffee container. Let it soak overnight and presto !- Hot Glue gunk came right off.

Happy Holidays !

Hawk

touche

Hi,
I have a Sensei in which I had to remove the cowl. It required cutting and prying the foam nose off. This left dents where foam was ripped away leaving divots. Any suggestions on what to use to refill the divots to smooth the foam out.
I am awaiting a reply from Hobbico re a new ESC and cowl.
Thanks

dahawk

Touche,

Is it EPP high density foam? I've used white spackle on my T-28 to repair then sand. Kind of works like bondo. Might check with the LHS to see if they have a recommended filler.

Good Luck !

Hawk

kyleservicetech

Add my name to the lightweight spackle idea. It's "Premium Grade Patch - Paint" lightweight spackling. It helps to put a few drops of water on what you're patching first, then put this spackling on. It can be thinned with a drop or three of water if its to thick. Let it dry for 24 hours, it will look just like foam.

If it needs to be stronger, just put a few drops of very thin foam safe CA on it. (Try it on a piece of scrap to see if you like how it works.

CHELLIE

As Others have said Lite weight spackle works great, I like to mix it with 5 min epoxy where you need to have it strong at, 50% spackle and 50% epoxy, Works great for me

tppjr

Alcohol removes hot glue beautifully. Not excess, total removal. It breaks the bond.

touche

Thanx everyone,
I will try the spackle and epoxy as this is on a firewall which will be covered with a nose cowl. What I should have mentioned at first. In cutting away the glued nose cone some of the foam chipped out. The motormount is attached to this so strength is what I need. Wont be seen as the nose cowl will slip over it and be either taped or pinned.
Being a trainer in a newbie flyers hands I'm sure it will require more repairs.

Octavius

I have a squeegee or towel at the ready. Glue, press together, wipe. You have exactly 1.563 seconds before it cools. AKA do it quickly.

Wildflyer

After crashing my first foamy,many ,many times, I changed a Sukhoi 26, to a Suckhoi ??
But the good thing was I learned just how repairable depron is.

Everything has it's pros and cons, and everyone has their likes and dislikes, I offer this simply as my personal likes, but at least try the GG & water idea.

I prefer foam safe CA for joints, cracks, and field repair.
I use just enough epoxy to fill the joints around my wooden motor mount.
I tried light weight filler, but it broke away in flight do to flexing (I was trying to fill a hole in the wing, that I couldn't find the pieces)

The only filler I now use on any type of foam planes, is simply white Gorilla glue, mixed with a little water in a small paper cup. It bonds very well to almost any thing, cuts and sands like foam after it is dry. It is close to the same weight as most foams also. For me, I have found no downsides to this foaming glue (except getting on my fingers)