Vertical Tail Fin Repair

Hi all - hope you are well.*
When my Raptor last went down, I managed to put a crack in the lower rear upright piece which I can only describe as a splinter crack. I forgot to say its made from carbon fibre. It is still in one piece, but I want to strengthen it up as I think it will shake more than usual from the vibrations.*

Any ideas guys**
Thanks

[dillwhacker]

Couple of sticks of wood or CF or whatever you have, and some hot-glue will be fine.
It won't look nice but it will work OK.
HTH

[pgkevet]

If you keep bits of broken blade then sandwiching the cracked area between two bits of blade carbon skin/epoxy can be quite neat. Just sand it all well first to key it

[waveydavey]

Pull the crack apart and wick some thin cyano in there. Clamp together, leave for an hour or 2 and it'll be fine, I've repaired frames like that and never had a problem

[Grumpy]

If it's 'splintered' then it can be fixed with epoxy and will be just about as strong as new and the repair all but invisible. Open the break up and get some epoxy forced in then clamp it firmly between two pieces of smooth plastic or similar in a vice and leave to cure.
Trim away any excess epoxy that squeezed out at the sides and you should be good.

[dbull46]

Brilliant. I'm. Really glad there's a fix for it. I didn't fancy forking out £30 odd for a new one.
Thank you all for finding a solution.

Dave :-)

[Raptormad2]

Quick uk sell them for a tenner if you can't fix it .

[dbull46]

Quick uk sell them for a tenner if you can't fix it .

Their are not as pricey as I thought they were then.
Thanks Raptor mad ;-)

[Si Goodchild]

Another vote for Cyano here - it'll wick its way in to all the little gaps unlike epoxy. Also, Dillwhacker's suggestion about re-enforcement with more carbon or wood is a good one if the stiffness is lost and the fin vibrates in use - this can happen even with new fins. I've been known to 'splint' a fin using a 4mm carbon rod held in place with cyano and/or cable ties.

[3dx]

Another way to repair it permanently is to use micro-ballons and thin cyno- cover one side of the fin with sellotape,pour the micro-ballons in,then cover with cyno,,once dry it can then be sanded flat and smooth- did this to my Goblin 500 fin 6mths ago and haven't had to replace it yet.

[dbull46]

I do have some cf rod that would do the job just nice. I've looked for Cyano and the list is endless. Can you please point me in the right direction so I know i'm getting the correct stuff.
The micro balloons is an interesting idea too.
Cheers guys.

[Grumpy]

Any medium or thin Cyno will work, just regular 'super glue' from the local supermarket will be fine. Personally though if you can open up the break to get epoxy in then that's the way I'd go. Epoxy makes a stronger joint than Cyno as it's less brittle, it also gives you a bit more working time and it doesn't go running all over the place gluing your fingers and everything else together. But either will probably work ok as long as the break is jagged and so gives plenty of area for the glue to grip. Clean breaks are harder to fix.

[dbull46]

Hello Grumpy, I have used some apoxy in between the two layers that plit and it was staggered so should make for a better fix. It's mounted in the vice between two pieces of smooth plastic.
Thanks for the cyano / superglue type.
I will see how it goes and if needed, put some cf rods each side too.

Thanks

[dbull46]

Oops!