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Big Cut done

Desert Rat

Well Known Member
I'm trying to get the canopy work done before it turns cold here in Kansas, and today was the day.

I researched this a ton before I jumped in, and it seems like there are a million ways to accomplish this. Everybody has their go-to process. In an effort to help anybody who's in the same situation I was yesterday (reading every thread I could find for tips on the simplest way to do this), here's the way I went about it.

A couple of days ago I trimmed off up to the mold line with a dremel saw max and the wheel that Larry Larson recommended in his excellent kit planes article. It worked fine for that up on my shop tables.

For THE BIG CUT I felt like I'd rather have it low enough that I could get to the center without standing on a stool so I built a small pallet and did it on the floor.

The pallet was made from some 1x3" pine across a couple of 2x4s. I ran a few strips of duct tape across the bottom of the canopy to keep it from splaying out and padded the edges with scraps of the foam that the canopy frame was padded with as shipped from Vans.

The trade off here is that with it sitting this low I knew I would have a problem getting the saw max all the way to the edge.

I laid down 3 layers of blue tape on each side of the cut line to make a sort of ditch or cut guide and just cut it with the Vans's supplied disk in my 90* die grinder.

Made about 4-5 passes, starting at the edge, running up to the center, then switching sides. After I judged it was mostly through, I started cutting all the way through at one edge, went up about 6 inches, clamped the edge, then went to the other side.

After I got both sides started, I went through in the center about 3" on each side of centerline and then duct taped the cut line so it wouldn't sag when the two halves got close to coming apart. I went back to the lower edges and cut them about 4-6" at a time, alternating back and forth and duct taping as I went.

It was about 70* in the shop, but the afternoon sun had been shining in through a big window directly on the canopy for a couple of hours so it was probably a little warmer than that.

No drama, but I'm glad it's done!
 

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Thanks for documenting your experience so well. It was very helpful.

Next time I'm in Estes Park, salt water taffy's on me :)
 
Taffy

Thanks for documenting your experience so well. It was very helpful.

Next time I'm in Estes Park, salt water taffy's on me :)

Someone's been to Estes! We have three breweries now too. :D
Seriously, feel free to reach out and ask.
 
...

I researched this a ton before I jumped in, and it seems like there are a million ways to accomplish this. Everybody has their go-to process. In an effort to help anybody who's in the same situation I was yesterday (reading every thread I could find for tips on the simplest way to do this), here's the way I went about it.
...

Congrats on getting that done! You probably already know this, but one suggestion I have read that was not clear to me back in the stone ages when I did mine, is to polish all the edges of the canopy. There is speculation that doing this can reduce the likelihood of a crack propagating from an edge.
 
Thanks- I did see that recommendation.

I eliminated the rough edge by starting with 60 grit on a vibratool and finishing up with 220 grit by hand. feel like that's enough to allow me to safely move the thing around.

When I get all the edges trimmed to final size, I'll true them up with a long sanding block, then take them all the way down to a wet sand of probably around 400 grit or so.
 
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