Drilling out hinge points

[TnAeroNut]

One of the guys at our field said he used a hot soldering iron of about the same diameter as the hinge and melted the hinge out. Sounds messy, but might be worth a try.

 

[kork]

I wondered myself how strong the slightly larger hole would be so last night I glued in a hinge with gorilla glue.
This AM I went out and almost broke the rudder because of the force it took, to rip it out with a linesman plier.
There is no doubt this is the ticket!!!
Kind of makes me made I hadn't tried it before.

 

[pawnshopmike]

One of the guys at our field said he used a hot soldering iron of about the same diameter as the hinge and melted the hinge out. Sounds messy, but might be worth a try.

That's a good method if you only have a few to replace. But I wouldn't want to do a bunch of them like that.

 

[Jetpainter]

I've done the soldering iron method, at it works well enough, but it's still a pain.

 

[edgewise]

I usually do the tubing also,starting with 1/4 to remove old hinge then use a 5/16 tube to make some plugs for the holes using some 1/2 thick scrap balsa then use gorilla glue and push the plugs in and after they have dried use a 5/32 tube to make a correct size hole for the new hinge.

 

[Huck Truck]

I just drilled some quarters scale Robart hinges out. I may have stumbled onto an even easier way. I did not have a quarter inch od brass tube but I did have a 3/16 brass tube which happens to be the size hole neede for Robart hinges so I sharpened it and gave it a try. It worked great you need to use a high speed drill to create a little heat and it cuts through the hinge and takes out very little extra balsa. no plugs required.

 

[TnAeroNut]

This thread came along at the perfect time for me. I've got a relatively new EF88 Edge with about 50 flights and one elevator and one aileron hinge have just a tiny bit of play. The "right" thing to do is cut out all the hinges of both surfaces and replace them. Guess I did an inadequate job of putting them in. How quick would you guys be to change out all these hinges? Am I cheating death by continuing to fly these as - is?

 

[TnAeroNut]

Well, guess I know how to shut down a thread. While I'm on a roll, here's another question. Does anyone know how to replace just one hinge point on a surface? Or, do you have to pull them all?

 

[Bartman]

if there's much of a gap at the hinge line you might be able to cut out the visible part of the old hinge and get a new one in next to it but if the hinge line is tight I'd guess you'll have a lot of trouble.

someone else might have something to add to that but that's my take and I'm sticking with it!

 

[pawnshopmike]

This thread came along at the perfect time for me. I've got a relatively new EF88 Edge with about 50 flights and one elevator and one aileron hinge have just a tiny bit of play. The "right" thing to do is cut out all the hinges of both surfaces and replace them. Guess I did an inadequate job of putting them in. How quick would you guys be to change out all these hinges? Am I cheating death by continuing to fly these as - is?

You might be able to use a long tube on a bottle of thin CA and wick in some glue. Just open the control surface as far as you can and hit both sides. Might be worth while to add a little Vaseline to the pivot point so it doesn't seize up.