Cockpit dehydrator

[Jeff1smith]

Have had a small round electric dehydrator in a Cessna 206 for years. It is a dehydrator, not a heater, although when you put your hand on top you can feel some heat. I would guess 90*.
Put it in the RV8 for the past few months in Port Angeles, WA w/o any thought.
Went to go fly today and noticed that the acrylic canopy just above my head and adjacent to the front bar was deformed. I am at a lose to explain how it could have got hot enough in there to make the plastic soft enough to dimple. There are two areas about the size of your fist either side of my head that now are sunken in 1/4”.
I am just stumped and incredulous how this could happen. The Cessna has a much bigger cabin the a metal roof, but still, this is a dehydrator NOT a heater. It would be the same as putting in a thimble of bleach into the washer and then finding all your clothes are streaked.
The canopy is functional but I am just getting ready to have a $$$ paint job done and a dimpled canopy just ruins the lines.
Anyone have any idea if anyone has the skill set to perhaps reheat this and smooth it out or any other ideas? A new canopy just wasn’t in the plan...but then when does the plan ever work...

[plehrke]

It takes quite a bit of heat to deform the canopy.

A couple very obvious questions:
You sure the dehydrator is the cause?
Could it have been there before but never noticed?
Is there a bright halogen light in the hangar above the plane?
How much is the canopy deformed? Can you post a picture?

[Ironflight]

You might check with Jeff at Airplane Plastics ( https://www.airplaneplastics.com/ ) to see if he has any ideas for repair - he’s the one that made the canopy, most likely.

Paul

[Jeff1smith]

Tossed and turned all night trying to figure this out. Got up in the middle of the night and drove to hanger to check if there was any heat in cockpit. There is just no way that the dehydrator could have put out enough heat to deform plastic. It is a small fan with just a touch a heat that sits on the floor, four feet under the canopy. Was suggested that it could have come from overhead light. Looked at that to. It is a garage LED, again four feet above the canopy, no way. Just a total mystery. It sits in a hanger in WA, not the sun of AZ....
My first attempt at a pic

[Jeff1smith]

[Jeff1smith]

Hit the sun over mtn icon and thought I pasted a url from an iCloud Drive, but no luck

[N8DA]

You're right, your dehydrator doesn't cause enough heat. But someone working on your panel putting on heat shrink tubing and inadvertently leaving the heat gun pointed directly at the canopy for minutes on end would. I've seen more than a few cockpits with exactly the damage you describe and it was caused by people with heat guns.