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Post by atmosteve on Feb 28, 2008 19:48:02 GMT 10
Vanders, i've emailed him to ask, but no reply as of yet. It does say it is similar in weight and irons on and....is paintable. S This does look interesting Steve, being on the threshold of building some new models I too would be interested in giving the stuff a trial, please let us know what you think of it, if and when.
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Post by thevon on Feb 28, 2008 20:08:58 GMT 10
Guys, I contacted Paul Daniels about 6 months ago about getting some and he said that his was all thinner than these films. The thickest stuff advertised on his site is 80 micron. That's the thin stuff I really like for covering balsa (fins, elevons). The stuff I covered the Ozprey with was 125 micron, also called 5mil. The Burrly new stuff is 10 mil. There are various types of film, eg Karl's Ballisticover is a more "floppy" film than Burrly (mine was 5mil Burrly and is stiff like a piece of acetate).
EDIT: When you iron this stuff, you get shallow highs and lows. If you try to work it too much with the iron it will melt the foam, but the film still won't shrink. I got radical and hit the wing with a hot air gun! And it shrinks tight!
You have to blow it gently in circles for 5 seconds or so! Pretty scary. Initially it looks like it stretches a bit, goes soft/ wrinkly then it pulls tight and the surface goes so smooth! Glassy round and smooth. But you can't go close to an overlap or it will totally pull away and distort a large area. (I did that!). But it was easy to cut that bit out and just iron another piece over! You can't even see it easily. Sometime I'm going to try CA'ing the overlaps but I'm doubtful.
A lot of my wing is completely raw foam. Where it's gooped it seems to take the heat much better. I'm pretty sure that if you spackle and goop, or PU spackle, you'll be able to rack that heat right up without melting the surface. No need for tape.
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Post by atmosteve on Feb 28, 2008 20:13:35 GMT 10
Thanks Andrew, I noticed the micron rating of the product at the website but wasnt sure how to interpret it as a rating. It sounds like the 125/5mil is the go for foamirs then.
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zipper
> 50
Off The Edge Sailplanes
Posts: 88
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Post by zipper on Feb 28, 2008 20:50:44 GMT 10
The film that I got was from a friend that runs a laminating business and he had some black on the shelf and told me that there were other colours available (red, yellow, blue, green). He has given me some black to try and if it works he would try and get some of the other colours from his suppliers.
Glenn
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Post by portfox on Feb 29, 2008 7:49:51 GMT 10
Andrew Thanks for the heads up on that one, the one across the road here at work was the same, thye said it was 80 microns, but there was no way that it would stand up to EPP punishment. I'll either have to wait for a source or just use solartex.
S
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Post by st on Feb 29, 2008 11:31:12 GMT 10
5mil is .005 inches - the same as 125 microns. Gotta luve multiple measurement systems Thanks Andrew, I noticed the micron rating of the product at the website but wasnt sure how to interpret it as a rating. It sounds like the 125/5mil is the go for foamirs then.
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Post by thevon on Mar 16, 2008 18:53:25 GMT 10
I feel I should give an update on the performance of the clear film covering.
The performance of the plane seems great. Handling-wise it has the same beaut handling characteristics that make the Ozprey an ideal fun plane for flying at the beach. It seems to track more accurately and crisply than before. The film is quite light so the AUW is less than my old twice-recovered Ozprey, and it does feel lighter to fly. My only complaint is that I can’t get it do to do axial rolls … probably need to work on the throws some more.
Toughness-wise, it’s very, very different to tape or Profilm. First thing I noticed is that when it’s crashed into trees – or even cactuses at SC, there’s no damage to the surface.
Now I’m not saying there’s less damage … I’m saying there’s NONE! Fair dinkum. The normal spiky branches etc that normally leave scuffs, dog-ears, rips, and punctures don’t make any impact on the film. It’s like a hard plastic shield. Really amazing. It’s like nothing else.
The other day I tried DSing at SC in a SE. Unfortunately the wind was pretty strong and I wasn’t really successful but it was a good chance to test the covering with the “touch wingtip on dirt during out of control fast bottom turn on knife edge” test. The resulting violent cartwheels banged the heck out of the tips repeatedly, and creased the film. Not too bad, but you can’t iron the creases out. I also did the “smack full bore into the park bench trick” rather fast at SC too. This rather extreme research test tore the nose off and broke my fin, but didn’t affect the covering. The overlap at the LE came apart in a couple of sections too. Fixing time was only due to the fuse repair (I taped and gooped it this time - much better). The only work on the wing was 10 mins to re-stick the overlaps with the iron, and I also put electrical tape all along the LE (I already had it on the tips … worth doing). Not bad.
Flew it for ages at Woody Point this arvo, slicing thru gaps between trees. Really nice.
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