Wing tube socket stop repair ideas

[paulduffy at comcast.net]

I had a similar problem in building a wing.  I glued a balsa disk into the end of the tube.  The trick was to get the glue to the bottom of the tube socket without getting any on the sides.  I used the wing tube to (essentially) shield the socket from the glue.  

Use Titebond (or equiv.) glue.  

Place the balsa disk at the bottom of the socket.  One way to do this is to take the head off of a pin, stick it most of the way into the end of a balsa stick, then stick the disk on the pin and use the balsa stick to place the disk at the bottom of the socket.  Use a second balsa stick to hold the disk in place while you remove the first balsa stick that has the pin.  

Take a piece of flexible vinyl tubing, about 1/8" diameter and longer than the wing tube, and thread it down the inside of the wing tube and out the other end.  Put the tip of the tubing into the glue, and suck on the other end of the tubing to draw a small amount of glue into the tube.  Put your finger over the end of the tubing to prevent the glue from running out and wipe the excess glue off of the outside of the vinyl tubing.  Pull the tubing out of the wing tube so that the portion of the tubing holding the glue is pulled inside the wing tube.  Don't get any glue on the outside or end of the wing tube.  Holding the wing tube and tubing together, slide the wing tube into the socket.  Stand the wing panel vertically on the wing tip.  Slide the tubing down to the balsa disk, then pull the wing tube up about 1/4", then release your finger and allow the glue to flow out.  Blowing into the tubing will help the glue come out.  Pull the tubing up so that the portion that had the glue is inside the wing tube, then extract both the tubing and the tube.  Keep the wing panel on its tip and roll it around to get the glue to spread around the joint between the balsa disk and the socket.  Maintain the vertical orientation until the glue dries.  This minimizes how much glue winds up inside the wing tube, and ensures that no glue gets on the walls of the socket in the wing.

It's not too hard to do and works well.  Good Luck.




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