How to apply laminate film

by Carbon | August 23, 2012 | (11) Posted in Tips

This is just a quick tutorial on applying laminate film to your planes. It is a cheap way to weather-proof them and is extremely strong. For this tutorial I will be using 5mm laminate film from Canuck Engineering. 

First, plug in your iron and set it to "press". We don't want to overheat the film, but it needs to be hot enough to shrink it. I set my old iron to between 2 and 3.

Most of the time you will be applying it to EPO or EPP. I learned on foamboard it doesn't work very well: 



So it's pretty simple: cut out a size that will fit over whatever you are covering, it won't shrink very much, so as long as you can dry fit it, it should be ok. 



And iron it on! It's that simple. If you have any creases, you can pop them with a needle, or just iron them out. DON'T OVERHEAT THE FOAM! It WILL melt if you aren't careful. You can tell it's melting when the foam beads start to separate. 


And you're done! 


COMMENTS

jd7792 on August 23, 2012
Do you think that the cover strengthens the plane enough to warrant doing it? On an impact does it dent as easy as the foam alone or does it protect the structure? I have always wondered how worth while the film covering is. What happens with the joints? Does the film join or is there always a seperation?
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Carbon on August 23, 2012
Well, it definitely stiffens the wings up. It doesn't necessarily prevent dents, but it does resist them by spreading out the force. Also, there is not worry of abrasion on the foam, which is great for crashes and transport.
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Carbon on August 23, 2012
Well, it definitely stiffens the wings up. It doesn't necessarily prevent dents, but it does resist them by spreading out the force. Also, there is not worry of abrasion on the foam, which is great for crashes and transport.
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ScottsRc on September 3, 2012
Do you have a suggestion for styrofoam board? I made a nice scratch build and I want to coat it in something... I was thinking shrink wrap? Any suggestions?
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Carbon on September 24, 2012
This would probably work on styrafoam. Or you could give colored packing tape a try.Check out tape brothers.
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Nonamerc on August 24, 2012
The raptor looks cool, what about adding a color to the plane so that the people who are going to be rescued can see the plane? Nice built!
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Carbon on August 24, 2012
I would love to paint it, but I can't decide how to paint it, and what to paint it with!
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Nonamerc on August 24, 2012
Do you guys in America cover your school books with paper? In the netherlands you have to, if you take that paper and apply a mix of wood glue and water to it you can laminate your wings with it. I compared the two and I like the covering with the book paper, its much better! It's almost as hard as plastic, I am going to cover my diy wing with it. I will post a howto on it but that can take a long time!
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Carbon on August 24, 2012
yeah, we do that. Weird, sounds cool. Any ideas for painting?
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Nonamerc on August 24, 2012
I dont have an idea. I dont think that the paint will work on the laminate since the laminate is smooth and paint needs a rough surface to work well.
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Nonamerc on August 24, 2012
I dont have an idea. I dont think that the paint will work on the laminate since the laminate is smooth and paint needs a rough surface to work well.
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UndCon on August 25, 2012
Might give it a try in the future. I will also try WBPU /nylon stockings
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larz001 on March 30, 2014
ive done nylon stockings and thinned out epoxy, the wing was almost bullet proof, it endured many many mid air collisions
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samboy555 on August 24, 2016
What if the foam does melt/ bubble a little bit? It seems like Whatever I do this happens.
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How to apply laminate film