Hi Kyleb,
Before snatching your wife's iron make sure it does not have any holes in ironing surface. These holes in more modern irons are there too let out steam (that is what I heard of course). What you need is actually the most basic electrical iron without any steam spiting capability. In Europe they are usually in the 20-25 EUR price range.
However these irons usually do not have any temperature guage. The reostath button that controlls the temperature of the iron is usually set up to the type of fabric you are ironing (wool, syntetics etc). One of the reasons this is the case is that the exact temperature is dependant also on your electrical network in the workshop. Therefore for the first few times make sure you ''calibrate'' your iron with a thermometer before the start of shrinking.
Lastly, I think that most of us go through the trouble of calibrating the iron only the first few wings or fuselages. After that you can, in my opinion tell perfectly well how the fabric is shrinking visually looking at the tauntness or the weave.
Final advice: when laying fabric treat is as sheet metal. Make a lot of templates, tack it in place, trim it to size, and always remember - you can shrink the fabric for about 10%, but you cannot streach it at all. So with complex curves leave surplus material.
Kindest regards
Saso
www.aereform.si
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I always do a test piece to make sure heat is ok,cheers,Pete
