Shrinking Fabric

[skippydiesel]

Anyone got any recommendations on best iron (available in Australia) or what worked for you??

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Anyone got any recommendations on best iron (available in Australia) or what worked for you??

Use your wife's old iron; if she hasn't got an old one, buy her a good new one- it will be a good investment.

The Polyfibre book advises us to calibrate the iron before the job. Given the sticky, dodgy sliding temperature controls they have, I have erred on the side of caution and taped a digital temp probe (wrapped in alfoil) over an old towel, so that I can regularly rest the iron on it to check the temperature.

 

You might find the face of the iron accumulates gunk- fabric adhesive, etc. MEK (nasty stuff) will remove it.

 

Tightening fabric is one of the most exciting parts of the build process; a good one to share with wife and mates.

 

 

[metalman]

I'm a metal worker and found the covering process almost therapeutic, it was the most enjoyable part of the build. I bought a small hobby iron from aircraft spruce for the tight bits and used an older type iron that a mate had for the big areas, I also use an infra red thermometer to keep it all in check. Have fun it really is good to see large areas suddenly start to look like an aeroplane!

 

Matty

 

 

[Guest Nobody]

Use your wife's old iron; if she hasn't got an old one, buy her a good new one- it will be a good investment.

Just dont give it to her as a birthday present.....

 

 

[fly_tornado]

hobby king will have an iron at a realistic price

 

 

[djpacro]

If you are using Stits or Ceconite there are manuals available eg http://www.ceconite.com/manual.htm

 

 

[M61A1]

Use your wife's old iron; if she hasn't got an old one, buy her a good new one- it will be a good investment.The Polyfibre book advises us to calibrate the iron before the job. Given the sticky, dodgy sliding temperature controls they have, I have erred on the side of caution and taped a digital temp probe (wrapped in alfoil) over an old towel, so that I can regularly rest the iron on it to check the temperature.

You might find the face of the iron accumulates gunk- fabric adhesive, etc. MEK (nasty stuff) will remove it.

 

Tightening fabric is one of the most exciting parts of the build process; a good one to share with wife and mates.

Personally, I would by a decent one (and I am a serious cheapskate), and let her keep the old one, I have a cheapy in the shed and it's crap, too much at stake to stuff around when they are relatively inexpensive.

MEK.....that's the good stuff!

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Just dont give it to her as a birthday present.....

Why not? I have given her a shovel, various other tools, and a push mower (no engine) at birthdays or Christmas. I still have all my bits. (Always made sure there was a crowd...)

 

 

[dazza 38]

Personally, I would by a decent one (and I am a serious cheapskate), and let her keep the old one, I have a cheapy in the shed and it's crap, too much at stake to stuff around when they are relatively inexpensive.MEK.....that's the good stuff!

Yeah I wouldn't be to worried about MEK I used it daily as a plumber (PVC Primer) for 12 years.

 

 

[JimG]

The biggest problem I have had is the poor resolution in the heat control thermostat in the cheaper irons .

 

Typically if you play around with the controls to ensure the temp doesn't go above the prescribed limit then it is set at thermostat switch point plus the overshoot , then as it is used an cools the temp goes down way below the target temp before the t/stat switches on and then will continue to undershoot until the heat builds and the temp starts to climb.

 

I've found the more expensive the iron the better it is at temp control . Its an important job so i say buy a good one.

 

cheers

 

JimG

 

 

[apm]

Anyone got any recommendations on best iron (available in Australia) or what worked for you??

Bugger using an iron, Way too fiddly. electric heat gun is quick and easy, as recommended to me by Howie at Lightwing and my local LAME. just remember to take the nozzle off the end if its removable. and depending on your aircraft structure watch out for over tightening the fabric as it can deform light frames, but this is easy to control with the heat gun.

Just glue a test bit of fabric to something like an old tennis racquet etc. then shrink it until you go too far, its amazing how much heat it takes. good for testing finishing sealers, paint etc also.

 

MEK is brilliant stuff, wish I knew about it years ago, 20l was about $100 in WA from Blackwoods.

 

Andrew

 

 

[facthunter]

I would have thought that using a heat gun would be worth a try, but everything I have read says use an iron, and a good one. Can you control the heat as well with a gun? Nev

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I thought you needed to use an iron so as to heat the glue and have it melt into the fabric and also force the fabric onto the frame?

 

 

[metalman]

the people who designed the product, make the product and who write the manual say to NOT use a heat gun,,,,aswell as being an uncontrollable heat (read inaccurate) small,super hot particles can dislodge in the airflow and burn holes in the fabric, but if a LAME says so then I'm not gonna argue :)

 

 

[Guest Nobody]

At the fabric workshop that I attended in Oshkosh they explicitly said to not use a heat gun. Their arguement is that the heat is dificult to control and that overheating is very likely resulting in melting of the fabric which will result in low tension in the finished plane. I would not risk it.

 

 

[apm]

Like I say, try a heat gun on a test piece first. heat control is easy, took a lot more heat to melt the fabric there, than I needed to get fabric taught on plane. Don't know about melting glue into the fabric, I used MEK for that. guess there is lots of ways to skin a cat.

 

Andrew

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Hey Andrew; is your real name Leroy?

 

 

[apm]

Hey Andrew; is your real name Leroy?

Bit of thread drift, But, No! pretty sure its Andrew.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

We did a fabric covering workshop at Monto (NorrAus) and one at Narrowmine (Natfly). We also saw a fabric covering demo at Longreach (Qantas Museum). Talking about irons, they suggested a non-steam iron (flat sole). I had one for years called a travel iron. Lighter than a steam iron and without the holes. Does a good job. Husband used his wife's iron (after she died) and put it back on the ironing board. I used it to iron the wedding dress I was sewing and had a job to get the glues out of the satin. Fortunately all was well on the day, but the moral of that story is once used on the plane, never return it to the ironing board. You can get hobby irons that look something like a soldering iron or mini iron on a long stick. These are fabulous for getting into the difficult spots. Craft shops like Lincraft or Spotlight have pinking shears and various implements for fabric covering and aircraft bits like velcro, drawstrings etc for making covers for baggage areas, headset hoods, map pockets etc. I took my husband into the craft section and he found lots of things he could use in the plane.

 

 

 

Sue

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Bit of thread drift, But, No! pretty sure its Andrew.

The excellent poly fibre manual regularly refers to a bloke called Leroy, who won't follow the directions- and stuffs up the job. I used to be a Leroy.

 

 

[ruffasguts]

Bugger using an iron, Way too fiddly. electric heat gun is quick and easy, as recommended to me by Howie at Lightwing and my local LAME. just remember to take the nozzle off the end if its removable. and depending on your aircraft structure watch out for over tightening the fabric as it can deform light frames, but this is easy to control with the heat gun.Just glue a test bit of fabric to something like an old tennis racquet etc. then shrink it until you go too far, its amazing how much heat it takes. good for testing finishing sealers, paint etc also.

MEK is brilliant stuff, wish I knew about it years ago, 20l was about $100 in WA from Blackwoods.

 

Andrew

another one who knows more than the manufacture

Mick W

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Anyone got any recommendations on best iron (available in Australia) or what worked for you??

You need an iron with NO "auto off", around 1200 watts. I got mine from Harvey Norman as a discontinued line, for $11 (yes, eleven dollars). It has a teflon-faced sole plate, and works quite well with Ceconite 102. However, I suspect it does not use a thermostat that measures the actual sole-plate temperature, but a simmerstat (like most electric stoves) that regulates the current according to a small heating element inside itself. As a result, its calibration is fairly loose at 225 degrees F but it is fairly closely regulated at 350 degrees F. You need to use a mercury-in-glass thermometer to calibrate it; read the Poly-Fiber manual.

 

It would be nice to get an iron that had a real thermostat in it, but I doubt these come without "auto-off"; most modern irons seem to be festooned with bells and whistles one simply does not need for fabric work.

 

 

[foxworker]

Find it difficult to understand why a L.A.M.E. would suggest using a heat gun, unbelievable. Stick to what the manual says.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

I have used both but prefer an iron. Like they say proper heat control is difficult with a heat gun, but with practise they can be used successfully with good results. The iron is needed for the final touch ups, and for laying down the edges of the pinked tapes if necessary which can 't be done with a heat gun

 

The iron I use was purchased at Harvey Norman and is a small travel iron with good temp control, and small for those tight areas. Viz is correct, you can find a nice pair of pinking shears at Spotlight. Aviaquip have the rest of the supplies you'll need at good prices. The heat shrinking has no effect on the glue as the glue is well dry by then, if you've followed the instructions correctly.

 

I was trained to cover with linen and Grade A cotton using tautening red-oxide dope in the Air Force, with my first real job being the elevators on a RAAF DC-3. Trust me the Poly Fiber system is so much easier to use, and probabily way better for your health in the long run............Maj....

 

 

[M61A1]

I would have thought that using a heat gun would be worth a try, but everything I have read says use an iron, and a good one. Can you control the heat as well with a gun? Nev

You can get heat guns with an accurate temperature output, but, I' at a loss at to how you could properly do all your edges and such with hot air. You would still need an iron. See if you can get a poly fiber manual, it's very comprehensive. Good reading.