I have to install a couple nutplates in a very difficult to reach location inside my fiberglass wingtip for my new navlights, a friend suggested I use these. Anyone have any experience with them?
TIA
TIA
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Clickbond nutplates: any advice?
- Thread starter Steve Crewdog
- Start date
I played with them in the Click bond booth at Airventure last year. Pretty slick. Love the fact that they hold themselves in place while the adhesive cures.
I have some to use on the wingtips of my -14A.
Drawbacks:
Expesive.
The most convenient form factor for the adhesive is using their self mixing tips on an injector. But this is not practical for a home builder.
They do sell it in a small envelope that you manually mix, but it is small quantities.
I have been told that you can use epoxy to glue them in place. I have no experience with this, but may try it in an easy to reach nutplate setting.
I have some to use on the wingtips of my -14A.
Drawbacks:
Expesive.
The most convenient form factor for the adhesive is using their self mixing tips on an injector. But this is not practical for a home builder.
They do sell it in a small envelope that you manually mix, but it is small quantities.
I have been told that you can use epoxy to glue them in place. I have no experience with this, but may try it in an easy to reach nutplate setting.
https://www.electricalhub.com has one of the better selections of sizes. Work really well ! Locktite Hysol 9460 or 62 works well for an adhesive but takes a little longer to set. If you don't want to invest in the click bond dispenser buy the 40 ml cartridge and just dispense 1/4 inch out of each side and hand mix on a note card.
Norman CYYJ
Well Known Member
Be careful using them. I have come across places where they have been used and found the bonding that has let loose, now you have a major problem if you can not access the nutplate.
I rivet a nutplate to a small piece of aluminum and use 2216 or G//flex to bond it on. Very inexpensive and no shipping costs. Not my idea, got it from HFS.
Dave
Dave
Great minds think alike, ordered them from there Sunday. Thanks
Already had that problem with the first try, which is why.....
HFS? A boating friend turned my onto Weld Mount AT-4020 which is stupid expensive but has worked out great. Fast setup, and in this case using the mixing tip is easier than mixing up some West Marine, adding filler, etc., then trying to get it inside the access hole.
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I have used click-bond products on certified aircraft. The problem is they don’t always stay stuck. Being certified means there isn’t any room for substitution.
As you are already experimental, why not look at your favorite nutplate painted thick with Pro-Seal? Clean the area real good with MEK or Acetone and coat the screw/bolt threads with oil and snug things up and let it cure.
I’m assuming this isn't a high torque application.
Thanks for another alternative. Not structural, long story short, I had to replace my navlights with something else, instead of seeing if there was an alternative with the same footprint I grabbed the first shiny thing, without realizing the footprint was different, AND it was going to be a PITA to get a nutplate into the wingtip at the the trailing edge. Someone said That's a perfect place for a Clickbond. As Matt said-and as I learned-the surface has to be well prepared, so I'm on the second try.
The extreme holes on each end are where I have to put a #6 nutplate, you can see where the previous nutplate and wire access hole was.
It's all part of the adventure.
Attachments
BTW Click-Bond only goes down to 8/32. I researched them as an option for something similar
Try these. CN614CR06PNL
Just ordered them from Elecrricalhub
CN614CR06PNL Minature Fold Over Nutplates
That hfs guy has some really clever tips!
Toobuilder
Well Known Member
I have a great deal of experience with them on the production line and flight line of a major military OEM. Even following stringent processes and quality assurance oversight they are an absolute nightmare in service. Nothing like having a panel held down with 100 fasteners and on first installation the 99th one pops free and spins. Or on postflight inspection a few pop trying to drop a maintenance panel.
There are few instances where I would install one on one of my own airplanes.
I’d just pop rivet normal nutplates in there.
Creative use of string, vacuum cleaner, magnets and Clecos will get the nutplate in place for pop riveting.
If you’ve got a 1/4 hole anywhere nearby you can get the nutplate in there. Just needs some imagination to get it into place to cleco and rivet.
I’ve yet to find a truly inaccessible place on an RV. So I’m always a little perplexed at the attraction of clickbonds. If you’ve can get a clickbond in there I guarantee I can get a normal nutplate riveted in there. I rate them about as useful long term as rivnuts.
I was hoping to hide the rivets, but as soon as you said rivnuts a chill went through me from a past experience. Ok, she'll have a little cosmetic flaw of a rivet protruding.
Haha yep they are the devils work. Only takes one to cure you!
How about mini one legged #6 nutplates?
You read my mind. $9.16 shipping from Spruce for a $2 part. Worth it. (I got a few extra, and some #8 and #10 while I was at it because I'm old and it's only money and I might need them.)
FWIW, after I made the order I checked and a mini 2 legged will fit. Which one will make me swear more is TBD.
I'm thinking I drill from the outside, then cut the head off a long #6 and screw it in, manipulate that inside the wingtip with a pair of forceps, drop it, retrieve it, repeat a few times until I get the get the screw shaft into the hole, pull it out, cleco and then rivet it. Should only take most of a day.
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Steve- If I were trying to fish a nut plate into an area like that, This would be my plan A.
1. run a piece of safety wire through both of the rivet holes in the wingtip and then back out through the big hole in the wingtip
2. thread the nut plate onto the wires and then shove it through the big hole and into place by pushing a piece of flexible rubber hose behind it.
3. shove hard enough on the hose that it's firm against the inside of the tip.
4. stick a cleco in the threaded hole to suck it up tight
5. get a cleco and a screw into it to hold in position
6. pop rivet in place with 3/32 cherry nutplate rivets
Should still take most of the day, but only if you pull up a chair and admire your work after
Yep this is the way. If you can’t manipulate safety wire then builders string can be sucked through any number of strange contortions over almost any distance- think in between the floors of an RV10.
Then pass the string through the threaded nutplate hole and tie something, anything bigger than the hole - like a nut, to the string. Pull it back through to the back of the hole. Twist around until you get a cleco in one of the holes then you’re set.
Here how I did some nutplates into the baggage floors of the 10 - and some into the front face of the spar. They had to come in from the outboard end of the wing.
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