Test: Sticking Burrly film onto tape or Gooped EPP

[thevon]

I'm toying with covering the new Bat with Burrly laminating film. It's at the stage where the coat of thinned goop on the EPP is completely dry, and I had laid some strips of strapping tape in various places, and sanded them lightly.

I did a test to see how well the Burrly stuck to the gooped EPP and to the tape. I ironed a bit of burrly across tape and gooped foam, let it cool and tried to take it off.

It hadn't really stuck to the tape at all and came off easily. But it had TOTALLY stuck to the gooped foam. I couldn't get it off. I had to heat it up with the iron till the backing melted, before I could get it off.

So I've put another layer of thinned goop over the whole thing!

[Vanders]

Andrew,

Nice work mate, been wondering about that, Ken kindly gave me some Burrly to recover my Moth with after I repair it, so this is a timely test.

M

[Pij]

Andrew, I see the difference with the laminating film sticking to gooped surface as compared to packing-taped surface, but what about plain EPP, or filament tape? Did some of your test go onto those, to compare?

Sounds interesting. Is there anything special about the Burrly brand? Sounds like a bag of smelly fish to me, hope it doesn't smell that way.

Edit: my mistake, you DID say strapping tape, not packing tape. Sorry.

[drcuzo]

I have just finished my first DUCK. I had use laminating film (LF) previously on a balsa scratch built plane and was happy with the result. It is TOUGH. I used LF on my duck. I used a thin spay of 3M 77 spray over the fibre tape. The film seems to be stuck well. Time and crashes will tell.
Steve

By the way I used acetone with good results. This is what Jack at Leading Edge Gliders uses in his DVD's on building
www.leadingedgegliders.com/

[thevon]

I just spray painted my new Bat, which is covered with Burrly, with Tile Colour Spray (tins of spray from Bunnings). Very easy, and very fast drying, and very light (17gms paint in total). Unfortunately it looks a bit milky/ patchy, and I don't understand why. I'll post the pics and update the build thread when I get the time.

[felix]

hey guys something that will be alot better than acetone is something called wax and grease remover.i use it for prepping auto panels for paint/primer and it's excellent.i also use it for removing the glue left over from graphic work on bikes and it just takes it away no problems.only trick with it you wipe it on then off and then you have to leave it for about 20min as it stays around for awhile and will stop anything sticking to the surface.

[Hamburglar]

Hey,

Where do you purchase the laminating film stuff? I just bought a Moth and wouldn't mind trying it out. It looks a lot less time consuming than the usual covering methods (uglier though! )

Thanks!

[Vanders]

Welcome to the Moth club, just make sure all your control surfaces are well attached & strengthen up around where your horn mounts onto your elevon with CA. Especially if your going to play around with bungees.

[thevon]

Ah, those Moths are just flimsy. That thing wouldn't have been doing more than 130mph when it hit the deck. (that's a joke! it sounded like meteorite. Or like I'd expect a meteorite to sound, anyway).

Hamburglar, I just got the film at a place that does laminating of posters etc. They usually have lots of offcuts of decent lengths that are not worth feeding back into the machine. I use the 75 micron for covering balsa and 125 micron for covering the EPP Ozprey. Not exactly sure of those thicknesses, but they come in big wide rolls (600mm I think). The thick stuff I used for the Bat is Burrly which Ezza imported from Karl (Predator, on RC Groups) and it's 250 micron, but only in 300mm width.

[Pij]

Andrew, I have seen Karl mentioned as the guru of new covering materials, and in that context they talk about "Karl's New Stuff" and also mention coverings described as 3-mil etc. Do you know what the Americans mean when they say 3-mil? I know it can't be 3mm, so I thought it could be 3-millionths-of-an inch (in the same way they would say 3-thou for 3/1000"), but 3/1000000" seems too thin to be realistic. I tried following links recommended for others who were asking about "Karl's new stuff" but those links didn't help me.

[thevon]

Pij I did see some explanation at some stage. All I know is that 10mil is the same as 250 micron (or close to that). 5 mil is 125 micron

For anyone who's bought any of the Ballisticover Heavy, here's a tip. When I was scratching my head wondering what to cover my Bat with for the 2nd time, I experimented with painting and silicon on the 4 different types of film I have here (Burrly, BCH, 125 and 75 micron).

The tile paint stuck to the BCH like nothing else. So much so, it looked like the covering had actually changed colour. I had to almost rip the film to get the paint to scratch. Plus, it was really glossy, and a really solid looking colour. No milky look. Painting BC with the tile paint would be excellent.

[Pij]

Thanks for the "mil" info, Andrew. Unless I still have my decimal points at the wrong spots, my calculations show that the use of "mil", therefore, means one thousandth of an inch, not a millionth!

But, I should remember, nobody ever accused the American measurement system of being rational. Why can't they just learn to do things the same as the rest of the world?

[callun]

Well remember Pij that a MILlenium is 1000 years, and a millipede purportedly has 1000 legs or somethin'...

[Pij]

That's a GOOD point! That would mean they are beginning to use international standard prefixes, with their non-standard system.

Milli-inch
Micro-foot
centi-cubit
kilo-ounce
mega-mile
pico-pound

The possibilities are endless! (Scary too).

It's going to be confusing, though, if a mil is the same as a thou.