td12

Hello.
I wondered if there is a better way to cut monokote from areas which already seald than cutting the monokote whit hobby knife carefuly. I question this because sometimes there is soft balsa and if you want to cut the monokote which sealed on it you squash it before cutting the monokot, and when you get into the monokote after loading presure you damaged the balsa on the way.
I can deal whit it carefuly, but I wonder if there is a beter way to remove monokote from sealed areas.
On way that I know from GP Instructions is to cut whit a soldering iron- Its very bad way, so don't write on that.

Thanks a lot, Tomer.

alan0899

G'day Mate,
I use a 100watt, soldering iron, works great, it melts & reseals the covering material in one pass.
What is the problem with this method?

td12

Whrn I Try it, it isn't cut all the line, just some points. all the color smeared and all the line was dirty and sticky.

alan0899

G'day Mate,
Then maybe you didn't do it correctly, you need a sharp or small type of tip, & it needs to be hot enough to melt the covering, when kept in contact for the whole length of cut.
Possibly your iron was not staying hot for long enough.

Gringo Flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Also if you use a brand new razor blade you can cut through the monokote without damaging the balsa. If you cut into the balsa a little bit it probably wont make a difference but if you take your time and use brand new blades you can get a clean cut.

Stew99

I just recovered an ARF that came with all the control surface hinges installed and pinned. Since I didn't want to rehinge it, I used a soldering iron with a small, pencil point tip to cut the covering along the edge of the surfaces. Worked great. It takes a little practice to move the iron at the right speed to cut the covering without burning the wood underneath. If you use a blade and cut into the wood you can create a stress point that will fail later.

dmcmike

My Feedback: (14)

You can also get a "hot knife" which is basically a #11 xacto tip stuck into a soldering iron... Hobby Lobby had them a few years back, they work great for not just cutting monokote off a model without touching the wood beneath, but on abs cowls, wheelpants, etc.

did a quick search at Tower and found this... same thing as I've got, except I don't have the soldering tips