Tip: Priming inside pushrod tubes

[Ronald Sutton]

To paint the inside of long slender tubing. Take the paint primer of your choice and an air hose.It will take two people to do this; one person to shoot the primer into the tubing and other to direct the air into the tube at the same time. When finished, you can look down the tube and see how the primer has covered evenly from one end to the other.

[bret]

Cool! I have one coming up to do. Are you at Carson?

[longranger]

Originally Posted by bret

Cool! I have one coming up to do. Are you at Carson?

This advice was a few hours late for me, as I was doing this job about the time the tip was being posted. I'll give it a try on the elevator tubes. I was thinking one person might get it done by lightly clamping the tube in a vise and having the primer in one hand and the air nozzle in the other?

[Ronald Sutton]

Originally Posted by bret

Cool! I have one coming up to do. Are you at Carson?

Yes, I fly my RV4 out of carson city airport CXP

[BigD]

I must have had either too much air pressure or too much paint, but I ended up with a lot of wavy paint on the first 12 to 18 inches of each end, and (hard to tell even with a flashlight) not so much in the middle 4-5 feet...

Enjoyed the book, BTW.

==dave==

[CharlieWaffles]

There's always another option

[RV7AJeremy]

Originally Posted by BigD

I must have had either too much air pressure or too much paint, but I ended up with a lot of wavy paint on the first 12 to 18 inches of each end, and (hard to tell even with a flashlight) not so much in the middle 4-5 feet...

Enjoyed the book, BTW.

==dave==

Yep, tried this yesterday with the same result.....still better than liquid plumber though

[dhmoose]

Originally Posted by CharlieWaffles

There's always another option

Inside jokes on VAF! "Inside" for those that follow closely. I like it.

[Lionclaw]

I spun my tubes using a lathe after adding primer. The result was very nice even paint distribution on the inside. If you're worried about marring the tube, paint the insides before you trim it, then trim off the side that was chucked in the lathe. Start slow!

[Buggsy2]

Here's a timely post from Univair, on an Ercoupe email list, about this subject:

univair mdsellers@univair.com via yahoogroups.com
11:45 AM (1 hour ago)
to ercoupe-tech

We have had some inquires about Val Oil and its availability. Valspar makes Val Oil. In quart cans is has their product number 27-30. Lowes is a supplier of the product. They may not have it in stock, but it is available from them. I did a Google search for Val Oil and 27-30 and got a couple of hits from some other on-line suppliers.

We have purchased the stuff by the gallon because it is what we have used for a number of years as a rust inhibitor on every Piper, Aeronca and Taylorcraft wing lift strut that we make.

It is a product similar to linseed or tung oil. We thin it down a little when we put it in the struts to allow it to slosh around a little bit and coat the inside of the strut. It then dries and sets up a good film to prevent rust.

A quart of Val Oil is enough to treat a ton of push rod tubes. Today, we put up some in half pint cans. We have assigned a part number of 100-1/2 PT and are selling it for $5.12 each.

Regards,

Mike Sellers
Univair Aircraft Corp.