Re: Does a cauterizer work?

From: Tapio Linkosalo <tapio.linkosalo_at_iki.fi>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:08:40 +0300

LeRoy C Cordes wrote:
>
>
> Tapio, I have a soldering iron that I bought from Great Planes that also
> has a chuck for an X-Acto knife. I took the blade out and put in a piece
> of solid #12 copper wire and it seems to work pretty well. My first
> experience with a cautery, that a friend gave me, was not happy - I had
> covered my masterpiece with pp film and was ready to trim it out of the
> frame - I turned on the cautery and started to cut film when the balsa
> frame of the wing went up in flames - I use it very sparingly now and
> always make sure that it has OLD batteries in it when I do.
>









Good point. The cautery indeed claims to reach 1000 degrees (C), which
is quite enough to burn balsa. Maybe a bit lower temperature would be
sufficient. Soldering iron has a good temp., it just seems to be so clumsy.

> In your
> earlier message did you really mean 1.5 x 0.5 mm motor stick ?
>





Oops. No. I mean 1.5 x 5.0 mm. I did some testing, making an opening in
between the stick, so that it was actually two 1.5 x 1.5 mm sticks 2 mm
apart made the stick much more twisty, but at the same time it also
buckled, so it was not stiff enough for motor pull. Carving the sides
concave seems to have similar effect, but I think if it would be easier
to build a I-beam instead. Have to try that.





-Tapio-
Received on Thu Jul 16 2009 - 08:08:39 CEST