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We all use them to construct our rockets, yet many people have problems with the adhesives they use. The information below should help. White & Yellow Glue: These glues are good for use on wood or cardboard, for the most part the are water soluble and clean up easily. Read the instructions, these glues usually do not adhere to plastics! These types of glues are suitable for use on small rocketry kits where you expect to use up to "D" engines. Plastic Cement: Plastic cement or airplane glue is suitable for use on certain plastic parts. This glue usually works by "chemically melting" the plastic together. This glue is not recommended for use on rocket kits! It is only suitable for use on small hobby kits when bonding plastic to plastic parts ONLY! Epoxy Glue: Epoxy glues are made from a two part mix, a hardener and a resin. Setting and working times vary from a low of 5 minutes to almost 3 hours! It is VERY important to mix the two parts together very well, failure to mix well or correctly measure the amounts of each part carefully will result in a mixture that will NOT harden. Generally the longer the cure time the stronger the joint. With longer cure times you have to "watch" the glue longer to catch any drips etc. We like to use 5 min. on the root edge of fins and a longer cure an all other parts. 3 hour set is great, it soaks into the cardboard tube and forms a stronger joint. In addition there are coating epoxys used to coat surfaces such as plywood fins to provide a smooth surface for painting. Coating epoxys are sandable and work many times better than a "balsa filler". Super or CA glue: Although customers have used ONLY CA glue on small Estes size rockets with success we do NOT recommend this. CA glues do have a lot of shear strength. We do recommend that CA glue is used to "tack" a part in place while your epoxy or other glue hardens. Super glue comes in several forms, such as gap filling, and thin or thick. The thickness relates to the amount of dripping associated with the glue, thin CA runs a lot. And a gap filling glue expands when drying "filling" in gaps. All CA's will cure only with a air tight joint! The absence of air causes the glue to set. CA glue will not work well on porous material and any joints that are not near perfect. One way around this problem is to use a spray hardener that will "set" the glue when applied. This hardener is a MUST when using CA on wood or most rocketry materials. OUR RECOMMEND GLUING TECHNIQUES: Use white or yellow glue on Estes size kits only, all medium and high power kits should be constructed with the techniques listed below. We use a 5 or 6 min. epoxy on the root edge of all fins,(edge that touches body tube). We leave a small amount off in at each end (1/16") with out any epoxy! On this area we place a drop of CA glue, align the fin and "hit" the CA glue with hardener. This sets the CA glue and locks the fin in place while the epoxy glue sets. 3 hour set is also used to form the filets on each side of the fins. The rocket is held in a horizontal plane with a pair of fins equally spaced from the top of the body tube. The thin 3 hour glue is poured along the joint of the fin and body tube. Gravity makes the glue flow and form a perfect joint, no sanding is required. On joints where dripping is not a factor (motor mounts) we like the 3 hour set epoxy, this soaks in and provides a superior glue joint. When finished with construction, coating epoxy is used to fill in body tube cracks and to finish fin surfaces. Sand with a fine grit sandpaper to get a desirable finish. If you entered here from outside of our shopping cart system and wish to order model rocketry products please click here. | Commonwealth Displays sells model and high power rocketry products from many companies, stocking over 1400 unique products. We have products from; Acme, Aeropack, Aerotech, Balsa Machining, Cosmodrome, Custom Rockets, Dr. Rocket, Edmonds Aerospace, Estes, FlisKits, Hypertek, LOC, Public Missiles Ltd, Quest, RATT Works, Scale Kits, Sky Ripper and more! We ship model rocketry products world wide from our Southgate, Michigan location. If you are in the greater Detroit, Michigan area please stop by and see our store. |