13 replies to this topic

[lamrith]

Another great and fun clinic with Iquad!

I spent quite a bit more time flying this time around, as did my son. Packing up each afternoon I had a pretty good stuggle getting a couple of the LE spars to separate. They were lireally fused together? It took a few minutes to get them to finally start separating. On one it turns out it pulled the ferule out of the center piece!

Is there a trick to getting them to release easier? I tried shaking, tapping etc to see if ti would free up, but had to just pull/twist to get them free.

Is this common with newer spars untill they get worn a bit from use? Most of my spars only have a couple hours flight time or less at this point since the kites are new.

[hyzakite]

It's the sand doing it to the rods, twisting is not a good thing to do it grooves the rods worse, there's a topic on this subject from o-rings to tape at the joints.

[stroke survivor]

Never had LE rod problems, may have been gritty a time or two, but make sure you clean out the LE pocket if you use it on sand!! I had had issues with the end caps, both LE and verts, nearly fusing on the rods!! I use "o" rings, butted up to the caps, to keep sand out of them!!

PS: take both a 3 wrap and race rod with you, they're different sizes!!
JB uses the "peanut butter jar method, not sure what that means, but I use the "o" rings!!

[Watty]

Another great and fun clinic with Iquad!

I spent quite a bit more time flying this time around, as did my son. Packing up each afternoon I had a pretty good stuggle getting a couple of the LE spars to separate. They were lireally fused together? It took a few minutes to get them to finally start separating. On one it turns out it pulled the ferule out of the center piece!

Is there a trick to getting them to release easier? I tried shaking, tapping etc to see if ti would free up, but had to just pull/twist to get them free.

Is this common with newer spars untill they get worn a bit from use? Most of my spars only have a couple hours flight time or less at this point since the kites are new.

Yep there are really only two causes for this. The most common one is sand. When putting a new leading edge into the kite, make sure that there is not a whole lot of sand on the ferrule or inside the rods. Easiest way to get the rods to separate is to twist. While I suppose this is more likely to damage the rod than any other way, I've seen no practical demonstration of this, and twisting is certainly the easiest way to get it loose.

The second possibility which I've only seen on re-glued rods, is caused by excess glue that increases the thickness of the ferrule. This can happen when using super glue to glue the ferrules back in place. The excess glue can bunch up at the end of the rod, and if you don't wipe it off, then you can have this problem. The best solution for this is to take some sand paper to the ferrule to sand off that glue and get the ferrule back to the correct thickness.

[lamrith]

Oring will likely be my method, since I have 2 big oring cabinets at work to pull from.

So the sand is getting in from the cap on the end? I honestly did not feel any sand or grit to the movement. It was just fused together, almost like the ferule had swelled... My endcaps released fine, one of the caps for Vertical on the LE was snug, but nothing like the LE spars were to the center spar. I almost had to put the kite in the trunk for the ride home partially together.

[Watty]

Oring will likely be my method, since I have 2 big oring cabinets at work to pull from.

So the sand is getting in from the cap on the end? I honestly did not feel any sand or grit to the movement. It was just fused together, almost like the ferule had swelled... My endcaps released fine, one of the caps for Vertical on the LE was snug, but nothing like the LE spars were to the center spar. I almost had to put the kite in the trunk for the ride home partially together.

Yea, this is sounding more like an issue with the glue. I had this problem with a dual line not long ago (sloppy ferrule replacement on my part). Took upwards of ten minutes to pull the rods apart. Check the ferrules and see if there is any gunky glue or anything on it. It should just be a clean black rod.

[katrina]

I believe the PB jar method involves tap-tapping (not thwacking) to knock the sand loose.

[stroke survivor]

I'll second the glue issue, I had one stick when the ferrule worked loose!! The glue that held the ferrule was holding the end spar!! The "O" rings just keep sand out out your caps on the rods, making them easier to break down!! Some don't have this problem, I use it at the beach only!!

[lamrith]

You know the glue thing does make sense now thinking about it. I can see on the ferule the the glue line is not "sharp" which tells me it may have been globbing out enough to stick on the end spar.. I had this spar set in my B before going into Bowens SLE, but it saw MUCH more use this weekend than it ever has, before. And Bowen was tearing it up so no doubt the spars were pressed together much harder than I ever did.

What is the recommended glue to set the ferule back in the Center spar?

[stroke survivor]

Don't know what Theresa uses, but it works well!! She's helped me with 2 and no problems!! I did do like Watty said and gently sanded to get a nice edge to edge butt connection and overall fit!!

[Khal]

Oring will likely be my method, since I have 2 big oring cabinets at work to pull from.

So the sand is getting in from the cap on the end? I honestly did not feel any sand or grit to the movement. It was just fused together, almost like the ferule had swelled... My endcaps released fine, one of the caps for Vertical on the LE was snug, but nothing like the LE spars were to the center spar. I almost had to put the kite in the trunk for the ride home partially together.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, it's not the sand that's big enough to feel that is the problem. It's the really fine stuff, almost dust, that can get in between the ferrule and a rod. A rod can look and feel completely clean and still be "sand welded" if it's been used in the right conditions.

As for re-glueing a ferrule, I've had good luck with Gorilla Glue. It's basically cyanoacrylate (super glue) with tiny rubbery particles added that make the bond less brittle and tougher.

[Watty]

You know the glue thing does make sense now thinking about it. I can see on the ferule the the glue line is not "sharp" which tells me it may have been globbing out enough to stick on the end spar.. I had this spar set in my B before going into Bowens SLE, but it saw MUCH more use this weekend than it ever has, before. And Bowen was tearing it up so no doubt the spars were pressed together much harder than I ever did.

What is the recommended glue to set the ferule back in the Center spar?

If you feel a bit of extra mass on the ferule, just take some sand paper to it so that it fits in the other rods better. If you have pulled the ferule out and need to re-glue it, some common super glue will do the trick. When glueing in a new ferule, just add a few drops on the side of the ferule and slide it into the rod in a spiral (to spread the glue out) until the ferule is half way into the rod. Then take a napkin to wipe the excess glue off of the rod.

[lamrith]

Thanks Watty, that was what I was thinking of doing. Glad to have confirmation before I jump into it.

Now to pull all the kites back out and rinse them down to get rid of the sand too!!

[Baloo]

Take care not to glue the napkin to the rod though :-)