Top Flite Monokote heat Sealing Iron Information

I bought a very nice used iron, but it didn't come with the basic directions or information sheet. Its the one above and its dial has three heat settings: 1 | | | 2 | | | 3

Can anyone tell me what the corresponding heats are on this iron and give me a basic idea of which setting are used for various jobs. My immediate objective is to tighten up some lose Monokote on a wing panel of a Tower Trainer 60. I've also e-mailed TopFlite to see if they can furnish me with new instructions/information.

If anyone can point me to a site where I can read a bit more on the subject of covering I would appreciate it. I would also value opinions on alternatives to Monokote. In reading all of the old posts on this news group, I believe I saw some comments indicating that some of you preferred another product over Monokote.

Thanks for any information you loan me. I'll pass it on someday.

Harlan

| I bought a very nice used iron, but it didn't come with the basic directions | or information sheet. Its the one above and its dial has three heat | settings: 1 | | | 2 | | | 3 | | Can anyone tell me what the corresponding heats are on this iron and give me | a basic idea of which setting are used for various jobs.

The heats tend to vary from iron to iron. Your best bet is to buy a thermometer and measure it yourself.

Good choices would be the `DuraTrax FlashPoint Infrared Temperature Gauge' which is here --

or the `Coverite Pocket Thermometer' here

for a lot less.

You should also get a sock like this one --

to keep from scratching up your covering.

As for the exact temperatures, it doesn't matter that much. Keep moving around until it's shrunk up as much as you need. Don't stay in one place or you'll ruin it.

If you've got a monokote package lying around, it'll give general instructions on how to apply it, including temperatures.

| In reading all of the old posts on this news group, I believe I saw | some comments indicating that some of you preferred another product | over Monokote.

I'm very fond of Ultracote.

Just try various temperature settings with some scrap Monocote. You don't really need any instructions beyond what come with your Monocote.

You must be careful of the heat with stuff other than Monocote like Econocote and Towercote that require much lower settings. Again experiment with scraps.

Ciao,

Mr Akimoto

The quick and dirty is to start with a low temp, and see if the coating sticks to a scrap of balsa - does it melt the glue? If not, turn it up a tad and retry it. This will allow you to find the setting that works for your iron, and the covering you are using. It should melt the glue, but not shrink the covering. Mark your iron with a mark so you can return to this setting.

Then, on your scrap piece, use a higher setting to shrink the covering. Turn it up a little bit at a time, until it starts to shrink the covering. A lower setting will be slower shrinking, and less shrinkage. You want to stay a tad on the low side. Mark your iron at this higher setting. Then you can switch between the two settings.

I thought Monocoat sucked. I found it very hard to work with, even under test conditions. So I went to Ultracoat, and it worked very well for me. Before you buy 10 rolls, maybe you could ask club members or friends for a sample to try out. Then go with what you like. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Rich.....

Ok, Doug I followed the advise given here and bought the pocket temperature gauge and the sock. Don't know about the sock, yet, but the gauge worked like a charm. It appears that there are 20-25 degrees between marks on the iron.

I read an article by someone from downunder and he claimed that Monokote temperatures for adhesion and shrinking were in the 350 - 380 F range. I find that difficult to believe. From what I'm reading on the web, it seems that 275 may be more within the working range. But, of course, I have yet to test it out.

Thanks for the help, all.

Harlan

| I read an article by someone from downunder and he claimed that | Monokote temperatures for adhesion and shrinking were in the 350 - | 380 F range. I find that difficult to believe. From what I'm reading | on the web, it seems that 275 may be more within the working | range. But, of course, I have yet to test it out.

Well, the instructions on the monokote would be the final word on that. But 350-380 F does seem to be a lot hotter than you should need to just activate the adhesive.

In any event, the usual procedure of events is that at some low temperature, the adhesive is activated, but there is no shrinkage. As the temperature increases, the covering starts to shrink, with the total shrinkage increasing with temperature up to a certain limit. If you go much hotter than that, then the covering melts and is ruined. It's a good idea to shrink only as little as is required, as once you've `used up' all the shrink, there's no more, and you can't shrink it any more, no matter how hot you get it.

Agree with Rich. I have used both Monokote and Ultracoat (white) on a Midwest Stearman. Found that the Ultracoat is MUCH better on compound curves (wingtips) that the Mono. Also found that the Mono "sags" with time a lot more than the Ultracoat. That said, when I used the dark red Mono on the same airplane before, it worked OK. It seems that Monokote is color dependant, i.e. some colors are better than others. What I do now is use the Ultracoat for the large areas such as wings and fuse, and then use Mono for trim as it does not shrink with the same heat. I used this approach on a Goldberg Chipmunk red-white-blue color scheme (as shown on the box) and it turned out beautiful.

My vote after using both extensively is for Ultracote also. I don't know if Monokote is color dependent or batch dependent. I used some flat dove gray and it was a real PITA to work with.

Red S.

The flat Monocote is indeed a royal PITA to use. I bought three rolls of flat olive drab for a Wing A-26 I haven't started on yet. I borrowed a small piece of the flat OD to use as the anti-reflective cover on the top of the cowl and forward fuse of a GP P-51D kit. That flat Monocote would hardly stretch or conform to curves worth a darn. I had just been using Aluminum colored Monocote all evening and there was a very noticeable difference in the way the flat OD Monocote went on. I didn't like it.

I decided right then the A-26 will not be covered in flat olive drab. :-) I'll save that stuff for a couple of Fun 51s and Something Extra profile kits I have in the shop. They have straight wings with flat wingtips and flat fuses... a good place to use the flat Monocote!

I wish Tower sold Ultracote. I still haven't tried it yet.

Good flying, desmobob

Robert,

Interesting! It was the flat OD Monocoat that I bought to cover an L4 (CUB), and I finally went to a gloss OD Ultracoat for the same reason. On a test piece of wingtip, it was impossible to work with, shrink, anything. Never even considered Monocoat after that experience. I did use a few small pieces on some flat areas as "patches" that looked ok.

Regards.....

Monokote has changed considerably over the decades. Today's version seems much drier, stiffer and less flexible than I remember it when I first used it in 1970.

Ed Cregger

Glad in a way to hear others had the same problem with the flat Monokote. I thought it was my problem. When I questioned Tower about it they said to read and follow the directions - identical to those with regular monokote. Ultracote is my covering of choice now.

Red S.

I think the same goes for a lot of us users. :-) Nearly a half century makes a BIG difference!

Red