- Joined
- Jun 25, 2015
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- Age
- 60
So I don't have any cracks on my P3 but am half expecting them and will be ready if they do happen. I will do the DJI Warranty repair but I want to be prepared.
I decided to make a mold of the arms so I can make a carbon fiber "strong arm" type attachment. Decide I would simply use some InstMorph molding plastic. IM rarely sticks to anything but before I started I had a Note to Self moment and thought I should probably try it on a inconspicuous area to make sure it just falls right off. Well I the screws out and the IM warmed to about 150F, ready to mold. Ignored my better judgment and slapped a bigole slab of IM on the arm. Formed it down past where the two shells meet and wallah! Well sometimes the IM will form a clamp around an object and if totally cooled will not come back off an object without a huge battle. Well I kind of started peeling back the areas that were wrapped around the arm. Immediately realize I had made a HUGE mistake, the IM was stuck, and I mean REALLY STUCK everywhere to the arm. As the IM cooled it began to get harder and harder to get off, in the end it was almost pulling bits of arm plastic off. I was able to get a blow-drier and heat the stuff to softness and kind of scrape the IM off. Felt like a dodged a bullet. I next painted a layer of latex all over the next arm and was able to make a couple decent molds of the arm In the picture you can see any place that the IM got past the latex layer bonded immediately and strongly. The latex does not stick to the P3 plastic or the IM plastic. So now I will make an inverse mold of the IM mold and begin laying down some carbon fiber twill and resin. If at some point get cracks and no warranty I will be ready to either slap on some CF loading plates but more likely I will be well versed at laying CF twill and resin directly on the P3 arm.
So If CF is the rich-man's solution to cracks then IM is the poor-man's 5 minute fix to cracks in the P3.
Pretty sure you could just heat IM to 155-160F and use a toothpick to clear the screw hole out, (or have a toothpick already in the screw hole) drop the screws in and tighten them a few turns leaving a thick layer of IM as a new shell. Check the screws to see if they may be melting the IM and getting loose.
Better than bondic for sure.
![20151001_141258[1].jpg](https://phantompilots.com/attachments/20151001_141258-1-jpg.32656/ "20151001_141258[1].jpg")
![20151003_123325[2].jpg](https://phantompilots.com/attachments/20151003_123325-2-jpg.32657/ "20151003_123325[2].jpg")
I decided to make a mold of the arms so I can make a carbon fiber "strong arm" type attachment. Decide I would simply use some InstMorph molding plastic. IM rarely sticks to anything but before I started I had a Note to Self moment and thought I should probably try it on a inconspicuous area to make sure it just falls right off. Well I the screws out and the IM warmed to about 150F, ready to mold. Ignored my better judgment and slapped a bigole slab of IM on the arm. Formed it down past where the two shells meet and wallah! Well sometimes the IM will form a clamp around an object and if totally cooled will not come back off an object without a huge battle. Well I kind of started peeling back the areas that were wrapped around the arm. Immediately realize I had made a HUGE mistake, the IM was stuck, and I mean REALLY STUCK everywhere to the arm. As the IM cooled it began to get harder and harder to get off, in the end it was almost pulling bits of arm plastic off. I was able to get a blow-drier and heat the stuff to softness and kind of scrape the IM off. Felt like a dodged a bullet. I next painted a layer of latex all over the next arm and was able to make a couple decent molds of the arm In the picture you can see any place that the IM got past the latex layer bonded immediately and strongly. The latex does not stick to the P3 plastic or the IM plastic. So now I will make an inverse mold of the IM mold and begin laying down some carbon fiber twill and resin. If at some point get cracks and no warranty I will be ready to either slap on some CF loading plates but more likely I will be well versed at laying CF twill and resin directly on the P3 arm.
So If CF is the rich-man's solution to cracks then IM is the poor-man's 5 minute fix to cracks in the P3.
Pretty sure you could just heat IM to 155-160F and use a toothpick to clear the screw hole out, (or have a toothpick already in the screw hole) drop the screws in and tighten them a few turns leaving a thick layer of IM as a new shell. Check the screws to see if they may be melting the IM and getting loose.
Better than bondic for sure.
