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COMPLETE FUN GUIDE TO USING 5 MINUTE EPOXY RESIN

by: academystudio( 641Feedback score is 500 to 999) Top 1000 Reviewer
24 out of 29 people found this guide helpful.


"Five Minute Epoxy Resin" is a truly remarkable substance, with a bit of practise you can get it all over your model, all over your hands, all over the bench, all over the floor & even on your best T-shirt!
Here is how to do it.
Firstly, make sure that there is a absolutely massive gap between any of the surfaces to be joined on the model, this will allow the Epoxy to run out easier, onto other parts of the model, especially if used in a warm temperature. The use of a heat gun can accelerate this part of the operation if you wish to aid the extremely free flowing qualities of hot Epoxy Resin.
Always mix loads more Epoxy than you need, so you can spread it liberally on your model & yourself, & always leave enough left over on your mixing board to permanently bond the mixing stick to it as well, so that you have to find another mixing board & stick for the next Epoxy mix. If you use Epoxy resin in the house, accidently dropping the mixing board onto the floor is entirely optional, although, when the Epoxy is still nice & runny, this ensures that your carpets receive a nice even coating & after a while the visible wear on the carpet in this area will become negligible. A special application technique is to wipe surplus Epoxy from the surfaces currently being joined, with an index or middle finger, the resulting Epoxy forms perfect "1:1 Scale Fingerprints" all over your model, which will add to the aesthetic appeal & cause other club members to drool with envy & make comments about your exceptional skill at using Epoxy Resin.
Fitting cockpit canopies with "Five Minute" Epoxy is a great experience of pure joy, the advantage is that you cannot get to the inside of the cockpit at all, to remove the surplus, so you can sit back and watch it run all over the place, inside the cockpit as well. It is assumed that the pilot has been securely Epoxied in place by this time, so there should already be a few dribbles in there anyway. Cyanoacrylate adhesive is better for cockpit canopies, as it leaves a rather attractive white cloudy mess all over the celluloid! Proper canopy glue is far too easy to use, it leaves no mess at all.
When joining wing halves together, you can be extremely self indulgent in an Epoxy Resin sort of a way. A positive orgy of Epoxy Resin can easily be had by the following method:
At least half a bottle of each "Five Minute Epoxy" is recommended for this exciting wing joining process - you don't want your wings to fold do you? So, making sure that you have a really BIG mixing stick, at least an 18 X 6 glass filled nylon, or an even larger wooden propeller, say a 20 x 8, is very good for this. Mix the two resins together thoroughly for at least 10 seconds, then put absolutely as much epoxy as you can onto one end of the wing, then repeat the process on the other wing. Don't forget to put the dihedral brace in, then quickly bring the two halves together in perfect harmony. The Epoxy will squeeze out slightly here & there, but with a bit of luck you could even end up with some on your trousers as well. Hold the wing halves together for five minutes until set. Holding the wing halves manually allows you to wipe off the excess Epoxy with your T-shirt & get maximum strength by smearing the surplus all around the joint. This is a good time to get the "Fingerprint" effect on other areas of the wing. A word of caution: do not be tempted to go to the toilet at this crucial stage. Sticky Epoxy Resin & your genitalia is not a good combination, in fact your wings could move out of alignment & this would not be good at all.
When fitting the tailplane & fin assembly with Epoxy Resin, really "go to town" it will help to counterbalance your heavy engine up front. Don't forget to smooth wide, thick fillets of Epoxy down each side of the tail, top & bottom for extra strength, you don't want the tail to flutter & fall off when flying your model do you? A few surplus blobs here and there on the tail area, or anywhere else, can largely be ignored, you can always claim that they are "warbird scale rivet detail" if anyone should mention it.
When fixing control surface hinges, always use immense amounts of Epoxy, because if the control surface falls off when flying, you might crash. If the hinges get a bit full of Epoxy, no matter, it will stiffen them up a bit, to prevent control surface flutter at high speed. A higher capacity flight battery, with a possible "battery backer" circuit will ensure that you always have enough power at the servos to move the control surfaces anyway.
Following these simple instructions will give you a model that is very strong, but maybe just a "gnat's dick" heavier than it said on the box that it came in, (which by now should have been neatly cut up to make several splendidly large Epoxy mixing boards) but remember that some full size aircraft weigh in at more than 400 tons & they seem to fly fine, most of the time anyway. Finally, "Five Minute Epoxy" is also a very good fuel proofer, so why not run some in & around the front of the model as well, try doing this with the engine in place to seal it as well, but be careful not to actually get any Epoxy inside your engine, you don't want to spoil it !
The other obvious benefit of using large amounts of this excellent adhesive, is that if you have to do crash damage repairs at a later date, using some more "Five Minute Epoxy", no one will notice. So always carry a couple of bottles with you when you go to fly your model, just in case!

 


Guide ID: 10000000002354167Guide created: 15/11/06 (updated 17/04/08)

 
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