Monokote question...

[jeffanddawn]

Hi all, I am new here and have a question about monokote. I am building a mitsubishi zero from the 400 series. I am hoping to cover it in monokote. My question is: Should I use an iron, or heat gun?? Thanks in advance, Jeff and Dawn

[David Lewis]

MonoKote covering is much too heavy, in my opinion, for a flying model.

[jeffanddawn]

I should have probably pointed out that I'm using a Cox .049 engine with line-control flight. Weight shouldn't be a problem.

[David Lewis]

It may be easier to fly, and more crash resistant, if you use a lighter covering material.
5 um mylar weighs 7 g/m^2.
MonoKote weighs 62 g/m^2.

If you do opt for MonoKote, or any adhesive-backed mylar covering, you normally would use both an iron and a heat gun. The iron is used to attach the MonoKote to the frame, and then you come back later with the heat gun to shrink it.

[SpiceMan]

Hi all, I am new here and have a question about monokote. I am building a mitsubishi zero from the 400 series. I am hoping to cover it in monokote. My question is: Should I use an iron, or heat gun?? Thanks in advance, Jeff and Dawn

Greetings Jeffanddawn,
I recently built a Cessna 170, and used "Coverite Microlite" film on it. I used ONLY an iron for both attaching the film, and shrinking it. It worked out very well, and this products weight is speced @ 0.6 oz. per square yard. Good stuff, but can be a bit tricky to work with. I was very pleased with the finished results of my bird ... no warpage. I would suggest that you stay away from using a heat gun for the shrinking process, because it may over tighten the covering in weak areas, and create warps / problems. Back & forth ironing worked well for me.
If you haven't seen my story about my build, you can search this site for "Cessna 170 Laser Cut Kit Build ( # 303 LC )", to see how it went.
Best of luck to you ...

[SpiceMan]

Oh ... I almost forgot. There's a detailed instruction sheet included with each roll of Microlite. You can also visit the Coverite website, and preview same.

[David Lewis]

The trick with iron-on covering is to use a thermostatically controlled iron and set the temperature just high enough to melt the pigmented adhesive. Any hotter than that will tend to cause wrinkles and make the covering process more difficult.

Benefit of using a heat gun for shrinking is it's easier to dial in the exact amount of heat you need -- just enough to get rid of wrinkles and then stop -- which is usually much less heat than attaching it to the frame. The less heat you can get away with, the better. The iron won't give you fine enough resolution over temperature without a lot of practice.