Tape weave hinges

by Thorsclaw | April 6, 2015 | (18) Posted in How To

Tape weave hinges

I want to preface this article by saying that this is definately not my original idea I first saw it on THIS rcgroups thread although it's been around much longer and thought it would be great alternative to the regular bevel hinges that most people use on thier foamboard airplanes,

Some advantages are

no bevel to cut or sand
extremely durable
no deflection limits
simple to make

Disadvantages

Tedious

What the finished hinge looks like as you can see no bevel and very free

Start with an appropriately long peice of tape the length doesn't matter I colored the non-sticky side white so it will be easy to distinguish in the following pictures

The sticky side is blue

Cut the tape aproximately in half

Stick the two pieces together so that in the middle there is an overlap about the thickness of the foam which is about a 1/4 inch

The transition from sticky to not

slide it into the hinge

stick it down on one side keeping the overlapped bit on the foam

and do the same on the other side

This would go great on any combat ship or basharound like the Phun Jet as it is highly durable and no delamination issues.

COMMENTS

PaladinDG on April 6, 2015

I have been using this style of hinge for several years and I definitely prefer this method over the typical FT hot glue smeared edge. In fact I have a Zagi that I have flown for several years and have never had to replace the hinges. I have thought about writing an article on this style tape hinge, but never got around to it. Thank you for taking the time to share this information with the FT community
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Thorsclaw on April 6, 2015

You're welcome I was just surprised that no one had posted about it as it is a classic method
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HarleyRev on April 6, 2015

Thanks for sharing ! seems like a great idea.
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dharkless on April 7, 2015

Yes. This is a method I used about 20 years ago working in balsa with Monocote coverings. Since the adhesive was in the covering and was activated by heat it was possible to make the hinges match the covering color and essentially disappear. I wish I had thought to bring it into this application. It makes perfect sense. If you use shipping tape or scotch tape as in the rudder sample the appearance is not much different from the FT hinges. The great thing about this method is that when the control surface is straight there is no drag inducing gap either on top or bottom and no flow through gap even when deflected. Thanks for reminding us older guys and bringing this "new" idea to the community. Nice video. Thoughtful presentation with the colors. Easily worthy of a 5 star review.
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tench745 on April 7, 2015

An even older version of the same idea is the thread-hinge. You do a similar thing, sewing a series of figure eights through the edges of the surfaces being joined. Like the tape hinge it is very long lasting as there is no actual flexing in the thread/tape, and you can get really tight hinge lines. No idea if a thread hinge could work in foam though.
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1959cutter on April 8, 2015

i also like to do the same thing with stir straws cut 1" and fiberglass kite spines from walmart,creating a sort of piano hinge that is super sturdy and free swinging.
both methods can seem intimidating,but now i wont do it any different.
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NoUsername on April 10, 2015

Its been a long time since I have seen this type of hinge. My very first nitro powered balsa build up kit was a Carl Goldberg "Eagle 2" plane. They suggested that this type of hinge was to be used. It was an outstanding plane, and I added a set of lights on the wings with an independent power source. Everything was set and ready to go, the only problem was I did not check the center of gravity and the plane was destroyed after the maiden flight by another person, oh well live and learn I guess.
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joker24458 on April 10, 2015

I have seen this kind of hinge before, but never bothered to try it. One possible problem I see with it is that it will have more deflection one way than the other when running a push/pull linkage setup, as the hinge line essentially changes as the direction of deflection changes (going one way, the control horn is closer to the hinge line than if the surface moved the other way). Thanks for sharing though, I will be trying it out soon.
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Madpco on April 11, 2015

I suppose you could adjust your servo head neutral angle to compensate this partly
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Flat4 on April 11, 2015

Thanks a bunch for bring this to my attention. I just started am fpv skyfun build last night, that I used this method for replacing the crappy foam elevons with balsa. Took a bit of time but man did it come out good, what a strong and clean hinge. This will be a 100mph+ plane and I have full faith in those hinges.
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apnewton on April 22, 2015

Great article. I learned something new, thanks
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Tape weave hinges