Handi Sandi Glue

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

It's something that I fell into quite by accident, but thought that I would share with you.

I was packing up a load of low power rockets that I had completed and flown to be shown at a public exhibit. 


Our club was preparing to sell entry level kits for cost at an airshow.  I wanted to include both a square of sand paper and a bottle of wood glue to show prospective parental supervision what additional tools might be needed to assemble the simple "MyBoid" rocket.

At the It same time, I saw someone post on Facebook their successful build and launch of an Epic II rocket kit.

I knew that my local HL had two on the pegboard, and so, since it was a middle skill level kit, I thought I'd buy one and whip it together quickly.

I got the kit, and opened it while on my lunch break.

I also had in my possession, a roll of adhesive 220 grit sandpaper. The intent was for it to be adhered to the flat short plane that I had scored earlier...the Great Planes Handi-Sander.

But for some reason, I had torn off about a 2.5" square of this adhesive sandpaper and absentmindedly attached it to the bottle of Elmer's carpenter glue.  That way, I wouldn't loose it.  And it wouldn't become adhered to something else by mistake.

But I had forgotten it.

Until last night, when I reached for my bottle of glue and was immediately reminded that I had attached this small square of sandpaper to the back.

Rather than peel it off, since it was firmly attached and would have taken the label along with it, I left it in place, and started sanding the burrs off my balsa fins.  It worked well. In fact, I also sanded the rest of the fin with it still in place.

It works great!

So, here's a tip that you might try.  Attach a square of sandpaper to the body of the bottle of glue, and use the roughly flat surface to lightly sand your fin root edge, leading edge, etc.  or after coating with a sealant or slurry of glue to seal the grain, touch things up.


This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer with another helpful rocketry tip!

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