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Canopy drilling/cutting - View Thread
having studied the archive, I can see lots of evidence of cracks occuring during construction, but equally a lot of people haven't had a problem. I practised today with a slow speed cordless drill on some scrap plexi using standard #40, plexi bit, and uni-bit...no cracking. Then I switched to high speed and really went at it with a lot of pressure...still no cracks although the other side of the holes showed some chipping. Iwas able to dress these out with a small grind stone in the drill....all this at 65*F. Upshot is, I'm going really gentle with #40 first like Van says, enlarge with unibit, dress holes with mini stone and keep the heat up. I'll use your suggestion of smoothing edges with vibro sander..still use the Dremel for cutting though! Of course, banging in those blind rivets still has me nervy! Another point...is there any provision in the kit for some shock absorbing where the slider meets the roll bar, mine has a nice even gap all round, but it's the roller part that hits the roll bar first...that must send a hell of a shock through the frame when you close it a bit too firmly...still thinking of the plexi, see!
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Canopy drilling/cutting - RE: - View Thread
I worked my canopy in the dead of winter and just used a heater under the canopy to warm it up. I like the dremel with the cut off disks for cutting the canopy. It cuts like butter with them. I broke a few because they get so hot cutting but that was not a problem. I tried the cutoff wheel with the die grinder and found it to be much harder to control and use. A lot more dust in the air also. Regarding the shock of the canopy closing. I would not worry about it that much. The plastic that they use for the canopy is very tough. Try to break a piece once you have the skirt off the canopy. BTW there is plenty of extra material so don't worry about cutting to a fine line first time. I went out about 1 inch beyond where the canopy final cuts should be and still had plenty of material for the windscreen. Still had to trim an inch or two off the back of it on final fit. The best advice I can give is to set the canopy frame inside the canopy and move it around until it is fitting the best you can get. Then mark it with a sharpie and cut outside of the line. Drilling is the biggest problem. Normal metal cutting bits will tend to screw into the plexi if you give them a chance. That is why they recommend the flat blade ceramic drill bits. When riveting, just make sure that the canopy is warm to the touch and you should not have a problem. Practice on a few scraps from the canopy skirt if you want to. You can rivet and drill all day long if the material is warm. Just make sure that the holes are a bit bigger than the rivet or screw. One trick that you may know is to take regular tan masking tape and put a strip along where the canopy will set. You will see a line that is darker than the rest of the tape where the canopy touches the frame. Drill there and you will not put any additional stress on the canopy. It also aligns your holes better than you think. As far as the front seal area, in the Wicks catalog I saw some rubber molding for a Mooney that is about the right thickness and shape to make a nice seal and bumper cushion. I filled the area under the windscreen to the canopy bow so that it was flush with the edge of the bow and 90 degrees to the fiberglass layup that you do on the top of the windscreen. This left me with a nice flat surface to mount the rubber molding to.
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Canopy flare - View Thread
Fitting the slider canopy to the frame. At the rear center line the plexiglass appears to flare upward for a distance of approximately 2 inches from the inside ( toward the front ) of the rear mold line which is 3/4 inches wide. It would seem that if the canopy were cut anywhere in this upward sloping area it would cause the aft skirts to angle upward and away from the aft top fuselage skin rather than rather than conform to the taper of the aft fuselage. Any advice on how far forward of this rear mold line to cut will be greatly appreciated.
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Canopy flare - RE: - View Thread
I clamped some scrap aluminum angle (about 5" or 6" long) on the top of the unwanted curved area with an equal length wood block on the bottom. I used short enough pieces to keep the slight curve you want to remain in the side-to-side direction. I then heated the angle and plexiglass with my heat gun (must be hotter than a hair dryer) and was able to bend the unwanted curve down to make a good transition for the skirt. After removing the angle and wood, I sanded the area to take out some small irregularities that the edges of the angle made. I was surprised how much heat I had to put on the angle and plexiglass to make the plexiglass soft enough to bend.
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Canopy Frame Tracks - View Thread
If I keep my canopy frame tracks parallel then the rear of my tracks are out about 1/8" more than they should be on each side not the rounded part that has to be filed but the base of them. I think I'm going to have to have the rear of the tracks about 3/8" closer than the front of the tracks. Will this be a problem?
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Canopy Frame Tracks - RE: - View Thread
Can you shorten the rears of the tracks to get them forward of the tapered section of the fuselage? They must be kept parallel.
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Canopy handle - View Thread
Has anyone installed "finger lift" handle at the rear portion of their slider to assist in lifting the rear when opening? I've seen this somewhere. If so how and where did it attach to the canopy? Does anyone know of any photos I can see?
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Canopy handle - RE: - View Thread
I haven't done this yet but I have determined that I need to. I was just going to pop rivet a small AL angle about 2 inches long on the slider frame.
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Canopy Seal - View Thread
Just wondering if anyone has been able to get a good seal from the sliding canopy on the 7 that does not leak at all. I have been told the tip up canopy provides a far better seal for both leaks and wind noise.
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Canopy Seal - RE: - View Thread
http://www.rvproject.com/owens_seals.html
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Glueing canopies - View Thread
Has anyone documented any part of the glue approach on their website. I would love to get a sense of your experiences, pitfalls, pros and cons.
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Glueing canopies - RE: - View Thread
Here is a link to my experiences: http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20050614184749626. There are 6 articles in total on the canopy.
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