RC Aircraft Proving Grounds - Tips by the Radio Control Flying Club of Toronto

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Cutting Surface - Glass
Team Breen
I have been using a small peace of glass to lay out covering on for years but about a month ago I ended up with a sliding glass door that I took the glass out of the frame ( it just has bolts on the corners and took about 5 min.. This gave me a piece of glass that is about 7' Long x 4' wide and it is the best thing I have ever used for cutting stuff. I use it for decrowning balsa sheeting because the blade does not scratch or cut the glass. The next cut you make follows the straight edge instead of the cuts in your bench and it does not seem to dull the blades any faster than sheet rock does. If you get glue drops on it the glue just pops right off once it has dried. I even sand my sheeting right on it. It is made of tempered glass so it does not scratch easy and it is smooth so you do not mess up the sheeting while you sand it. I do not know how I ever got along with out it.

Cutting Surface - Sewing Mat
Norm Cecil
Use a sewing mat to cut your covering on. They
are available at most fabric stores, the better ones are self healing (don't
show cut marks for years) and best of all they have a grid printed on them.
Line up one edge of the covering along a grid line, then using a long straight
edge you can cut pieces of nearly any size without measuring and placeing marks
on the covering. Speeds up the process quit a bit.

Reforcing Control Surface Edges
Darwin N. Barrie
I'm sure I'm like most and tend to bump
the airframe into walls, doors, etc during the building process,
especially tail surfaces. This can be especially damaging to corners of
ailerons, elevators and rudders.

What I do is slit the corners of these surfaces and epoxy in a thin
strip of carbon fiber sheet into the slit. After curing I sand
everything smooth. I have actually dropped my stabs on the corner and
did not get the usual crushing that occurs without reinforcement.

The carbon fiber strips are available from CST. www.cstsales.com.