Re: Anybody out there using....

From: Bill Gowen <wdgowen_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:38:52 -0500

In my experience cauteries are hard to control. I use a 15 watt soldering pencil from Radio Shack - and you don't want to touch that to the wood either. I try to leave a tiny flap of plastic hanging off the wood. You can then fasten the flap down with some diluted 3M77 and a small brush.

One of the problems with cutting too close is you run the chance of the film shrinking and pulling away from the frame. It's also good to never allow the cutting tool to get under the film where a blast of heat can shrink the film.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Jim Howell
  To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 11:48 AM
  Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Anybody out there using....


    



     ...a cautery iron/tool for cutting film? I need some guidance.


    For several years I've tried to work with my SO/WS kids using some of Tim G's super-duper double-edges razor blades to cut the film on the flight surfaces. I cannot get across to them the need for just a little glue for the covering. And, as a result, they get this globbed up mess that frequently results in the blade pulling and tearing the film. So, I decided to buy one of Tim G's cautery tools to see if that might offer an improvement for them. I tried it on one of my own models first and I'm glad I did. When I touched the tool to the film, it cut the film great!, but almost simultaneously the balsa edging burst into flame, died out when I removed the cautery tool, and then I got to watch the balsa framework disappear in a traveling ember. In its own way, it was mesmerizing.


  How do you use it to cut the film without touching the framework to get the clean edge of film on the framework?
  Jim Howell




  
Received on Tue Jan 26 2010 - 09:38:57 CET