Adding weight to carbon stab tube?

[Flyinrazrback]

Just curiuos if it is ok to add weight to the inside of a carbon stab tube if it is necessary to add some weight to my plane? I dont want to stick weights to the outside of the plane, and have done it with aluminum tubes, but never carbon, any cons to the idea?

[why_fly_high]

The only con I can think of is if the weight comes loose it will be more likely to damage the carbon than the alumium. I would be willing to do it. I usually put lead on the outside until I have the CG finalized the put the weight inside if needed or try to find a wa to move more stuff.

Dan

[Biff]

You could just cut two 1/16 pieces of round ply wood that will fit snugly in the tube.Push one piece in and glue near the centerof the tube. Add lead bird shot, a bit of epoxy and slide other round wooden piece and there you go!

[SMOKEY]

I used fishing lead weight wrapped it with alot of electric tape. Stuff it the stab tube. Never had it come loose. Add a little epoxy or CA if you want it permanent.

Smokey

[Skyliner 300]

Just curious why do you need to add weight to the airplane.

[Stainless Skills]

maybe its nose heavy...........

[sweetpea]

you may also be able to balance laterally this way.....and not have the weight show

[JPrc]

Just put an aluminum tube back in, the only reason the carbon tube is there is to reduce weight. Save the carbon tube for something else before you start expoxying lead in it.

[yonatan]

Done it on my QQ 102" yak 54
just add the amount of lead grains into it and stuck it with foam from each side
works good and easy to remove

[bodywerks]

I don't get it. Surely you are not trying to add "ballast" to your plane, right? This is an aerobatic plane we're talking about, correct? I never, ever heard of someone trying to increase the weight of their aerobatic planes, so we must be misunderstanding you.
Now, if it is lateral balance you are trying to achieve, then it kinda makes sense. However, a wing tube only goes into about 1/3 of the length of the wing panel, so your mechanical advantage is lower than adding weight at the wingtip. If it takes one ounce of weight at the wingtip, it's gonna take 3 ounces of lead at the end of the wing tube.

What kind of structure are we talking about here? I guess it doesn't matter because it is easy to conceal balance weight on either a foam core wing, composite wing, or built-up wing - it just takes a little extra time. If it's a built-up or foam core wing, just remove the covering from the wingtip and cut a conical-cut disc out of that tip rib, determine the amount of weight needed to achieve lateral balance and glue it to the inside of that disk, glue the disk back in, sand it smooth, and reapply covering. If it's composite, dremel a small hole in the wingtip and take a syringe of epoxy and squirt it into the hole until you achieve balance, then fill the hole with epoxy and microballoons, sand smooth, and touch up the paint.

[Biff]

Stab tube dude.