45 J-3 Cub
Tissue Covering the Stab
With such good success on covering the rudder, I decided to cover the stab next. This shows the stab tissue on the first side stuck down with acetone, but the edges have not been folded over yet. Also shown are the small No. 4 Red Sable brush and the cup of acetone used to stick the tissue down with.
This shows first side tissue with its edges
folded over, stuck down with acetone, and the excess tissue trimmed off.
A couple of comments are appropriate here:
(1) The tissue must be dampened with water
on the edges in order for it to fold over and conform to contour properly.
Acetone will not do this, but after the tissue is dampened with water, the
acetone will stick the tissue down so that the excess can be carefully
trimmed off with a razor blade.
(2) Once trimming is complete, the
edges must be given at least one coat of dope so that the tissue on the
other side will stick properly when its edges are folded over.
This shows the tissue on the second side after it
has been stuck down, its edges folded over and stuck down with acetone, and
the excess tissue trimmed off.
This shows that the tissue on the stab shrunk
nicely using a light mist of atomized water. However, the drum tight
tissue warped the stab, which did not occur on the rudder.
I doped the water shrunk tissue with a light one
coat of 50/50 tautening nitrate dope, which dried within a couple of
minutes. Then I laid the stab on a piece of wax paper and weighted its
surface down with four 1/4" square steel bars as shown below. Hopefully,
when this first coat of dope cures, the warp in the stab will be
gone.........................Tandy
