OK fellows, cool off, I started this epoxy vs tray war with my question about removing the servos the first owner installed in my Hera. Using the busted wings I tried several of the methods mentioned. 1) Heating with the blow dryer to soften the epoxy- I heated the skin from the opposite side for about 2 minutes and tried to slowly pull the servo out- No Luck. No damage to the wing surface but it did not soften the epoxy. Perhaps if I heated it more? Somehow it sticks in my head that softening the epoxy would increase its' stickiness. Chilling it and then beating on it might actually work better but I didn't try this because I was too lazy to run upstairs for some ice. 2) Banging on the servo from the top side of the wing dented the wing surface and did not release the servo epoxy bond. 3) Flexing the wing skin did nothing. except to make rather disconcerting crunchy noises from the skin. 4) grabbing and twisting with needle nose pliers- I could not get a good purchase on the servo due to the position of the servo off center to the hole. The only grip surface I could get a bite on was the base of the servo arm and the servo's mounting bracket. Broke the bracket off, servo still in. No Damage to wing. 5) Wedging something thin like a spatula between the servo case and the epoxy/ micro balloon. I really could not get it to separate easily and was afraid that too much pressure might result in a slip and skin puncture. 6) Putting a screw driver upside the servo at about a 45 deg angle and popping it (medium) with light hammer. servo didn't budge. I did not try a blow perpendicular to the servo case because I would have had to cut a hole in the root to insert a tapping rod and did not want to compromise this area. HOWEVER!! I then grabbed the servo with the needle nose and twisted and she popped out clean. NO damage to the wing. No epoxy on the servo case. Popping the servo a few times must have loosened the epoxy bond. Its true, Epoxy does not chemically bond to servo cases. The adhesion is purely mechanical. (as a dentist I know a bit about bonds and adhesion- we have to get things to bond on teeth in a wet environment, with lots of shear forces and thermal cycling too.) Roughing the servo case will increase the retention. CA DOES chemically bond to the case so if you put it back in with CA it might be harder to remove the second time but you might be able to use Debonder then. It should not attack the glassed underside of the skin. (BTW, I found out the hard way that debonder will loosen the bond between Silicone (Goop) and fiberglass) Certainly going to the trouble to make a mounting bracket give one faster access and more predictable removal without the anxiety of splitting a wing skin, But it does add weight and wood brackets can fail too. It also occurred to me that if you use shrink-wrap on the servo before gluing, the servo could slip and move a slight bit inside the shrink-wrap. and you have to heat that sucker up quite a bit to shrink the wrap. So what's the right way to mount a servo? Anyway that works for you, as long as you know how you are going to remove it without damaging the wing. I personally like the Voltz Wingmaxx plastic brackets that I put in my Spectre 2M. Dave Malone RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
