Loctite Warning

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May 15, 2015
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Location
Grand Lake, Colorado
I found out the hard way that Loctite 243 (blue) and Phantom 2 shells do not mix.

I was reassembling my shell and had applied a tiny bit of Loctite to the threads of the screws since the blue thread locker that was on the screws from the factory was about gone. About the time I got everything back together I remembered something I did not do inside and I had to open it up again. To my horror, I found that three of the screw bushings in the bottom half of the shell (the openings that the screws go through) had broken about 1/8" from the end, leaving nothing for the screws to tighten against. I got some superglue and tried gluing the broken bushings back on, but the plastic was crumbling like it was rotten. I did my best and started reassembling the shell, saving those three screw locations for last. But as I started the reassembly and put in the small phillips-head screws in at the tip of each arm, the plastic disintegrated around the screw holes before I even tightened them down. Then I found that the other bushings were crumbling as well.

Trust me, I had not overtightened anything on this quadcopter, ever. It didn't take me long to figure out that the residual Loctite had somehow caused the plastic of the shell to lose its integrity. The whole bench was covered in white granules by the time I quit. The shell was crumbling at every location that any of the Loctite had contacted.

My replacement shell will be here in a few days. I won't make that mistake again, and I hope none of you will, either. Lesson learned.
 
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Yup.

Unfortunately this pops up every couple of months here.

Sorry it had to happen to you too.
 
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Yup.

Unfortunately this pops up every couple of months here.

Sorry it had to happen to you too.
No big deal I guess. I had a few dings on my shell anyway and had a new one on order from Helipals anyway. I should have (shoulda-coulda-woulda!!) done a search here before I applied the Loctite 243. I did a search after and saw a few postings that were a little vague (I didn't go several pages deep into the search, so there is probably a lot more on the topic in the archives).

Maybe the other lesson (thanks BlackHawk388!) is that all that's blue is not regular auto parts store blue Loctite!
 
I've opened/closed my P2 shell about 6 times and did not feel the need to reapply thread lock.

The vibration is no where near enough to cause any issues and I inspect my quad before ever flying session.
 
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I've opened/closed my P2 shell about 6 times and did not feel the need to reapply thread lock.

The vibration is no where near enough to cause any issues and I inspect my quad before ever flying session.


I agree, I have opened both mine more times than I can remember and never had an issue with loose screws.
 
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I feel kinda stupid, I used the 242 once when I did my prop guards. Guess I need to order a shell to have in standby! :confused:
 
Same here. Applied loctite, now cracking.
 
Yup it should. I barely tightened the screws just over fingertip tight, so I'm not convinced it was me over tightening. I'll be checking my Phantom 3 to ensure screws are not over tightened.
 

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