[kanga]

Some years ago I was on the YES stand on The Flying Show. With us were some of the youngsters from a Schools' Build-a-Plane project, with their nearly finished and part covered aircraft. One of them told me that she hadn't told her family about the project beyong that it was a technology one until mother asked her why she wanted to take the iron to school .. [as the aircraft is now flying I assume that the covering went OK ]

The thread title made me think of 'pushing tin'

[Aircraft Coverings]

Hi
We are Aircraft Coverings Ltd. Based in Henstridge Somerset. We are the UK & European Distributors for the Poly-Fiber Fabric Covering System. We use fairly cheap domestic irons. We check the calibration using a thermometer & heatsink compound. The technique is in the manual which is available as a free PDF download here: www.conaircraft.com/download-manuals. (The Ceconite manual is also available here). From there on we use a hand held I/R sensor to constantly monitor the iron temperature. Buy a teflon coated iron as stainless will give you an erroneous reading on your temp sensor. Always aim at the same spot on the iron for consistency. The hottest spot is usually about 2" down from the tip in the centre. We also use prolux modelling irons- some of which have a digital display, which we find very convenient. Dependent upon your covering system you may have to shrink once or twice. Poly-Fiber uses 250F then 350F. Theres a strong chance yours will be the same but check your build manual. Some systems only shrink to 250F then use dope to carry out further tautening. Forming is normally carried out at 225F. If you need any further advice without sales pressure, please get in touch.
Regards
Chris & Alex. Aircraft Coverings Ltd.

[letpmar]

Thanks very much, I will need all the help I can get and want it looking as good as possible

Pete

[tnowak]

Applying and shrinking the fabric is mostly the easy bit!

The "excellent" finish comes from one's paint/dope spraying skills!

[Dave W]

The Farmer used a roller on his Turb rather than spraying, and the finish is superb. Worth exploring. The paint chosen had a lot to do with it, I think.