That has been my experience as well. I just wonder how the PTC caps would handle a kinetic shock if it were to ever happen.
Going to Nats so time to prep the Barham for the carnage. Wasn't much balsa left in several areas so time for a re-sheet job. To get the E6000 bonded skin off, I trim off as much balsa with a razor knife leaving just the E6000 layer. The E6000 is then rolled or peeled off bit by bit. Sometimes you can peel several inches in one go . Overall, getting the E6000 bonded skins off is time consuming but easy enough (and no damage whatsoever to the hull). After four or five hours peeling (over a couple days), ready for new skins. The new skins get their first layer of silkspan using the Titebond II method. Also doing some cannon mods. The front cannon is getting a new uptube (and more down angle ). Till next time... .
Don't know, never sheeted with contact cement, only superglue and E6000. E6K is much easier than superglue. I'll be resheeting with E6K. I have the method down, the glue's cheap and readily available, easy to apply, holds very well, it's forgiving in application. Why not? Because it may take a bit more effort to pull off over Weldwood? Who knows? Let someone document a sheeting and resheeting job using Weldwood and I might decide to try the method.
I just tried it with Weldwood on the Bis, seems to work very well, no dope at all. Weldwood/MEK Applied the Silkspan using a 60/40 mix to the balsa, then a 80/20 mix to apply it to the hull. It appears to stay very flexible, instead of getting dried out like when using dope. We will see what it looks like at Nats and give a report on it.
I'm sure the Weldwood/MEK is the better method overall but the Admiral is very sensitive to solvent fumes so I have to keep that at a minimum. Titebond2/water for the silkspan bonding, of course no fumes whatsoever. The little beads of E6000 to bond the skins, not to bad in the odor area.
Do it outside. My CFO is very sensitive also, but weldwood is fast and sure to seal with little effort.
Beautiful job Steve. I hope you will bring plenty of balsa to Nationals, because you may really need it. As a side note my Nassau goes two years without a resheet generally.
Carl, I'm bringing a box full of balsa (and half of it prepped for sheeting)! Looking forward to mixing it up with the "whole" gang.
A question for you guys, Why are the casements not penetrable on this type of Barham but have to be penetrable on the Baden?
