Tip-Up canopy cutting

[Pmerems]

Those Builders who have come before me,

I am starting to cut my RV-7A tip-up canopy and wanted to check in.

The plans call out to pre-cut the excess around the canopy then place it on the canopy frame to begin the real trimming process. I wanted to know if I should cut at the top of the distorted areas (this is the area where the manufacturing forming frame marks/lines/impressions) are in the plexiglas. I don't want to inadvertantly cut off too much.

Any help would be appreciated.

Paul

[dekky111]

I'm at the same stage and will be looking at the advice. What are you cutting with? I saw an article in Kitplanes (I think) that stated that the Roto-Zip made cutting easy and foolproof. Anyone remember which month it was in?

[Radomir]

Paul, you'll be cutting a lot more off.. I am now done with the front end.. and it wasnt' that bad (as it initially seemed). You'll pretty much end up cutting the front all the way to that lip (where canopy starts to turn flat) which will create a curve.

[scard]

I'll chime in. I just finished all trimming and sanding of all plexi on my 9A. ALL of the transition shape comes off of the front. Be very careful of how much you take off of the back to begin with.

[Finley Atherton]

I used the cutting disc Vans supplies in a 100mm (4" for you foreigners) angle grinder. Works really well. Has lots of power so it will not "bog down". It is easy to control if you hold it down low with both hands - leave the safety guard on and wear leather gloves. The disc with the angle grinder also easily cuts through aluminium. It made easy work of making the straight cuts in my instrument panel.
Fin 9A
Australia

[robertahegy]

You should be safe cutting off any deformed salvage. When you do the split, put your canopy on a large enough flat table, screw in (to the table top) some small blocks around the canopy to keep it from spreading, then do two inch cuts two inches apart. Once you have the initial cuts, you can link them together to finish the cut. keep the protective covering on as long as possible to keep the canopy from being damaged.

Roberta

Here is a shot of my initial first cut. Fit things up prior to doing the aft skin.



Here is a shot with the front half final fit and clecoed in place.



Here is the final fit prior to glassing and painting.

[Pmerems]

I thought it might be easier to get the initial forward and side trimming done with the aft top skin off. Any problems with this?

I am using Van's supplied cutoff wheel with a HF air die grinder ($9.95 on sale). I had a smaller HF die grinder that bogged down while cutting some test cuts so I went out yesterday (planning to purchase an electric die grinder-but they were out of stock) so I picked up a larger air die grinder and hoped it would work better. Indeed it does. Cuts without bogging down. My compressor is small so it is runs almost continously but it is music to my ears.


Paul

[robertahegy]

That is the way I did it as you can see in my post. Just measure back on the aft skin to make sure you leave enough canopy to cover the hole.

Roberta