I use the west system for everything and use west system silica when I need it to be thick non runny ....I use the spoon method but use the bottom ....Great information look forward to more videos.....I have had one failure due to lack of proper sanding to a plywood fin just on one side it flies fine but I'm going to fix before I fly it again its a Loc Little Ditter
You mentioned having fast curing times for structural epoxy but from what info I could find Aeropoxy has pot life of one hour. Do you use something else for structural epoxy?
@@rsilvers129 Good question; they appear to have about the same use pattern with 6228 having slightly better mechanical properties. I suspect it was because 6209 was more available when I started, but I will definitely look into 6228 when it's time to reorder.
John Coker Thank you. I will look into that. And thank you for sharing your knowledge with both your youtube channel as well as your web site! Much appreciated.
I don’t see any case where you apply epoxy to the primary surface - I don’t see *any* epoxy being applied to the fin roots or the mating surface of the centering ring - I only see fillets. Why is that? I’d expect you would want to use epoxy where the pieces mate, not just tacking fillets onto the sides.
I often put a bead of epoxy on the fin root when I install it, especially if there is a tight fit where I'll have difficulty with the fillets. However, the main bond is the fillets. Epoxy bonds are stronger in compression than tension so I try to make sure each part has at least one good fillet that will hold the part in compression. For fins, this is the inner fillet to the body tube. The fillets at the MMT are mostly to anchor the fin root against lateral forces (fin being pushed to the side).
