Covering undercambered wings. Dennis Bryant SE5a.

[Albert Ace]

Before I start this next build, how can I cover the Scale section undercambered wings. ?

I'm a fan of food and nylon; not I was going to try Diacov heat attached covering for this one. But, unsure of the wings ??

 

All help appreciated.

 

Albert

[Albert Ace]

Sorry, that's Undercambered wings.

[Ernie]

Hi Albert Ace, A few suggestions that might help you. You could paint the lower ribs and structure with a heat activated glue. Balsalock comes to mind, but I'm sure that there are others. Or, you could cover the bottom first, then use thin cyano from above, Or, you could stitch the whole thing as per full size. I know thats a bit of a scutter, but I'm doing that on a wing that warps, so it's a double problem

ernie

[John Rickett 102]

Fabric cement is made especially for attaching fabric to a structure. Available from the light aircraft suppliers, LAS or Skycraft.

Brush it on where ever you want the fabric to stick, then brush through the fabric to adhere - it won't peel away, even after shrinking with heat or dope unless you want to reposition, in which case its associated thinners will release it easily.

If you buy fabric cement you will also need the thinners as the cement is quite thick initially and needs different thinning ratios for coating the structure and for brushing through the fabric.

It is purpose made for polyester fabrics and nylon. It may not provide the greatest of adhesion with pre-coated fabrics like Solartex or Diacov as the adhesive layer will form a barrier to brushing through.         

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

4 hours ago, Albert Ace said:

Sorry, that's Undercambered wings.

Title and OP corrected.

[J D 8]

 Pic is of my Bleriot XI's wing during some cleanup/repair. Model was built many years ago [not by me] with nylon covering [ you can see it is quite white underneath] Recon the covering was stuck on with dope, full strength non shrinking.  John's method above probably best.

 Fabric is still well in place and model still airworthy.

[Don Fry]

First off, an assumption there is a spar on the underside, near the lowest part of of the chord. So far, I’ve not found a wing that hasn't.

Paint this spar with Balsaloc or Impex fast tack interlining glue (haberdashery shops). IF the fabric has not got a heat sealed glue, you need to paint all of underside structure. Leave to dry, then tack the fabric to the low spar. Then run over it again with the heel of the iron. Good tack, all the spar surface. Now, note well, when you do the rest of the surface, it will try to pull the fabric off the spar, get heat on the spar and the joint will fail. So I pin a spar sizes bit of wood, foam, whatever on the spar, can’t mess it up then. And then do the rest, front or back half first. Remove when finished. 

If using Solatex self glued type fabric, tack the fabric is the same. You can skip the Impex, but I don’t. I still use the protective temporary false spar.

I use Ceconite (LAS). I don’t like the glue system. Smelly, messy, and I find just not needed on small aircraft like ours. I seal it with non shrinking dope. 
 

Reads more difficult as it is in practice.