peeling the blue stuff

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:28 pm

I like the idea of only peeling the protective covering around the areas to be riveted, but don't see a way to do it neatly, other than a straight edge and an x-acto knife, which I'm afraid will cut right through the allclad. What are you guys doing?

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:29 pm

A soldering iron works great and will not damage the alclad surface ---providing you don't press too hard.

Dan N742DA 50 hrs and climbing

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 7:51 pm

Take it off!

Take it ALL OFF!

The plastic stuff too!

If you are gonna paint it, who really cares? How bad are ya gonna scratch it anyways?

I just don't see the reason why people want to preserve a finsih that is going to be coated with paint for eternity!

It just doesn't make sense. It is one of those things that won't make a hill of beans after you have been flying it for a week, year or a century.

...two cents

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:06 pm

unless you want a polished finish.

i use the soldering iron method, and it works very well. i rounded the tip though. the out of the box tip was too pointy, so i ground it down a bit, and polished it.

you can also draw circles around each hole like i did to protect them even further.

see the thread 'New Idea?' to see what i'm talking about. it takes forever, but works well. oh, you're fingers will hurt after doing it as well.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:05 am

cjensen wrote:unless you want a polished finish.

Egg zactly!

CJ

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:50 am

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't want a polished finish on the outside, but I'm not going to paint the inside. Since the allclad is there to help protect against corrosion, I'd like to treat is as gently as I reasonably can.

Incidentally, please don't mess with soldering iron tips that you intend to use later for soldering! You'll destroy their ability to "wet" with solder.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:53 am

yeah, but they're so cheap, i'll just get another one for actual soldering.

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:52 pm

By the way I'm using a 25 watt soldering iron that doesn't seem to keep up, that is alow me to move along as fast as I'd like to. Is anyone using a higher power iron? If so how's it going when you use it?

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:49 am

i'd have to check mine. i have no idea what kinda power it has. not much, 'cuz it's sssslllooooowwww.

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:36 am

Yes, I had the same problem, the Alclad will suck all the heat out of the tip, and then it won't melt the blue stuff anymore. I found an old iron that was heavier and more powerfull and that is what I use now. I found that rounding the tip a little bit precludes the scratches too.

Cheers, Pete

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:12 am

I solder for a living, and professional soldering irons are temperature controlled. They are able to provide varying amounts of power to compensate for heat sinking, while maintaining tip temperature. The ones we use at work, IIRC, can go up to about 120 watts. We almost always leave them set at 800 degrees F. With that, I was able to melt about 1" per second of the blue stuff. I wouldn't even try to melt solder or the blue stuff with a 25 watt iron.

Cherokee Driver · Post by **Cherokee Driver** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:49 pm

I find this works very well.

I bought the kit from a guy at Oshkosh a few years back. In it is the "Scoring-the-blue-stuff-off-of-Van's-aluminum-tip."

There is enough mass in the tip to stay hot even with the aluminum wicking the heat. The tip needs no polishing...it is smooth and round from the box. No marks are left on the aluminum. I simply clamp a thin rule in place and draw a line along the straight edge. Plenty of heat and no cord to get in the way.

http://www.solder-it.com/pro100.asp

If you do not have a butane soldering iron now...here is a good time to add to your tool collection. I use mine all of the time. They heat up quick and no pesky cords.

Just one more idea.

Eric

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:37 pm

OK, I did the rivet lines on the outside of the HS skins, what about the inside? For you non-peelers, are you just doing strips on the inside, too, or taking all that off?

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:06 pm

I take strips off the inside surfaces and use the blue stuff as a mask for shooting the primer. Remove the rest of the blue stuff right before final assembly.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:10 pm

i've changed my thinking on this subject, and now agree with CJ. i was going to have a polished airplane, but have since decided to paint all surfaces. since i am going this route now, i'm taking it all off. i really isn't going to get scratched, so i'm not fussin' with the rivet line de-plasticizing.

:goodevil:

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:16 pm

Good choice!

Live a little!!!

CJ

Rupester · Post by **Rupester** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:28 pm

I talked to Ken at the Vans builders' help line about this several weeks ago. Though I'm desperately afraid CJ will get a big head about this

, Ken said, " Peel the blue stuff off. T

The longer it's on, the harder it is to get off, and besides, the last thing you'll do before you paint is to scuff the ENTIRE outside surface with Scotchbrite." So there it is from the "Big Guys" at Vans ...

johnk · Post by **johnk** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:28 am

I imagine that the soldering iron technique raises the temperature of the aluminum along the lines melted in the plastic, with the temperature rise depending on the temperature of the iron and its speed across the surface. Does anyone know if this temperature rise is within the "safe limits" (whatever that is) of our heat-treated aluminum alloy skins?

JohnK

Post by **Spike** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:32 am

I dont worry too much about that John. There are times when I dont even get the film to seperate cleanly. I figure that the heat has to get to hotter than that to affect the hardness of the alloy.

-- John

TomNativeNewYorker · Post by **TomNativeNewYorker** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:50 pm

For flush rivet sets, a piece of masking tape on the face of the flush set helps reduce any surface finish boo-boos, and also hels preventing slipping.

Also rivet tap on the heads of the rivets help.

RivetBangers.com

peeling the blue stuff

peeling the blue stuff

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