Which adhesive for gear leg fairings?

[C5Engineer 1170]

Alright gang I am all caught up on other stuff and have no more excuses not to get this TK1 Racing/Avid Bush gear hybrid under my plane. As most of you know I like the uncovered look. I am just going to fair the gear legs with some wood fairing from a Kitfox wing strut kit like I did my first gear swap. I hate to cut it up but hey I've got it and the tapers are perfect. When I did this the first time around I only glued the wood to the back of the front legs as the rear legs were already done so I just used JB weld. This one I'm doing all the pieces so that's not really feasible. I have two new cans of regular Hysol that a gracious member(Thanks Ron) sent me a while back but I hate to even open them for this project and I need very little working time and strength.  I just need to center em and clamp... 5 minute would work. So what say the masses...small quantity, quick set up...not structural...cheap is good Stand by gear swap #3 thread.

[TJay 1041]

If your going for cheap I would say a small tube of pl-400 would work good its made by loctite, we glue sub floors down all the time with it and also plywood to steel I beams, it holds good takes about 7 hrs to cure, a faster thing might be like a 5 minute epoxy, just some thoughts.

[lostman 198]

I'd go with T-88 epoxy. It's not nearly as quick drying as that but if you can wait for it to dry over night it will really get the job done. I've used it for many things and it sure sticks well.

 

Can't wait to see the new gear and get a true results post from you.

[marksires 484]

Hey lostman, good to hear from you again!  Also - read your wifes book and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Tell her to keep at it!

Mark

Edited 5 Jan 2015 by mark

[EZFlap 12]

Joey I would use Shoe Goo, or Goop. Available at Wally World or Home Creep-O in the aircraft parts aisle. The advantages of this adhesive in my opinion are:

 

1) It has some flexibility as opposed to the brittleness of any epoxy-based system. In the event of any vibration, flexure, small impacts, bumping it with your shoes on the way in or out of the airplane, etc. you will have a better chance of not cracking it.

 

2) I is a one-part glue, no mixing, no short pot life, etc.

 

3) If you ever need to strip it off you can do it with a razor blade while still on the airplane... not removing the gear and sandblasting.

 

4) The stuff is $3.95 for a tube which would do several airplanes.

 

The hot ticket IMHO would be to prime and paint your gear, let the paint cure fully (with some mild heat if you are able), then wrap the gear tubes with duct tape. Apply the Shoe Goo / Goop adhesive into the groove of your wood fairings, and hold the fairings in place onto the duct tape with a few pieces of masking tape until the glue has set overnight. Remove the masking tape, and cover the entire gear leg tube/wood fairing with model airplane covering, MonoKote or Oratex or SolarTex or whatever your nearest model builder uses.

 

Some time down the road, if you need to remove the fairings for inspection, repair, etc then you're on easy street. Using a housewife's "coupon cutter" or careful use of a razor blade, slice through the duct tape at the front of the gear leg tube, peel it back, and you can slowly peel/pry/unwrap the duct tape/fairing assembly off the tube with less effort and destruction.

 

If you want to be really smart put a couple of coats of car wax on the painted tube, leaving only the last inch on both ends un-waxed. Then put on the duct tape over the entire tube. The inch wide strips will be enough so that your tape/fairing assembly will not "rotate" on the tube, but when the time comes to remove the fairing it will take 2 minutes.

[C5Engineer 1170]

T88 looks like good stuff minus the cure time. I've looked at wrapping the legs with model fabric before but not sure it's worth the effort to make it look a little prettier. The set up I've been running all this time is just rattle canned wood.