Berchmans

Berchmans

Well Known Member
Good evening all. Today I spent a good many hours installing nutplates on the wing tips for my RV8. Now I am ready to start work on the wing tip lenses. I cut the supplied material in half with a dremel tool and noted that it did not make a very smooth cut, rather a lot of plastic melt infact. What is the best method for cutting the lense material and getting a nice straight edge. Thanks all in advance for your repsonses.
 
Like you I used a Dremel to do the rough cutting of the lense. Then I used a bench belt sander to do the "final" smoothing of the lense edges.
 
I used a Dremel tool with a cut-off disc. That worked better for me than the roto-zip tool.
I'm a big fan of the belt sander with disc sander on the side. that 8" disc seems the easiest way to finish a piece of work 'to the line'.
Then hand work....
 
Thanks. I didn't think of the belt sander...when I cut the lense material in half with the dremel I got a lot of smoke, rough edges and thought there had to be a better way...looks like there is...onward with building.
 
plexiglass smoothing

I cut the two halves with an abrasive disk. I then roughed it out with a six inch belt sander. The final fitting I did with a cabinet scraper. That is basically a 3"X6" piece of thin steel plate with a little tang on it. Traditional woodworking tool for smoothing wood. You can really shape the plexiglass with it. Check woodcrafters or similar store.
 
shears

I used an offset pair of shears then a block sander to finish it. Worked ok for me.

bird
 
1) Rough cut using a Dremel with cut-off disc. Go at a speed that doesn't overheat the plastic. But don't worry about exact straightness or smoothness of the cut. Just leave enough margin to sand it down later.

2) As for sanding, no need for a belt sander or disc sander or any sort of power tool. The plastic sands down very quickly. So a couple of minutes spent with a good old fashioned sanding block will yield the best results. Better control and less heat.
 
Make sense...now just to get some time to do it...off for some dipnetting and halibut fishing this weekend.
 
Best tool for cutting plexiglas or fiberglass

I bought a Rockwell SonicCrafter 2 years ago and found it amazing with plastics and fiberglass. Made my canopy cut, trimmed skirt, fairings, anything fiberglass or plastic I use this.

Three big advantages:
  1. No dust to speak of. As it oscillates to cut, nothing much thrown into air.
  2. It has never caused any melting what so ever
  3. Blades last forever and they're cheap ($20) when you want to replace. Have yet to need to do that though.

Several other brands as well. Not a super cheap tool ($125) but I found it the right tool for the job. Heavy duty construction as well.

Here's a link to Amazon that has more info.
 
Last edited:
Junglepilot said:
I bought a Rockwell SonicCrafter 2 years ago and found it amazing with plastics and fiberglass. Made my canopy cut, trimmed skirt, fairings, anything fiberglass or plastic I use this.

Three big advantages:
  1. No dust to speak of. As it oscillates to cut, nothing much thrown into air.
  2. It has never caused any melting what so ever
  3. Blades last forever and they're cheap ($20) when you want to replace. Have yet to need to do that though.

Several other brands as well. Not a super cheap tool ($125) but I found it the right tool for the job. Heavy duty construction as well.

Here's a link to Amazon that has more info.
Click to expand...

Which blade do you use?
 
Blade type

Randy I use the semi-circular one (has teeth on about 270 degrees). This gives a significant advantage when working around irregular shapes like we have.

Also where the teeth end on the blade, I use that "corner" for cut-through when making precise cuts.

Another plus is that the blade mounts on an adjustable hex type mount, so you position the blade relative to your working angle holding the motor/handle. In other words the area you are cutting with can be perpendicular to how you are holding the tool or straight off the end; where ever you need it. Handy feature.

Also it doesn't tend to jump out of the cut like a die grinder style tool will occasionally.
 
Dremel

I found that the diamond wheel for the Dremel cuts through the canopy and fiberglass like butter, smooth edge and minimal debris. I think I used heavy scissors on the lenses.
 
Another lense question

I have noticed numerous installations of the plexy wing tip lense using more than the 2 screws suggested in the plans. I have also seen may flying RV's with only the two screws...is there an increased rate of failure in the RV's that use only two retention screws verses other methods?
 
Two screws is enough

I used two screws to hold each wingtip lens on my RV-8--one in each corner. My plane has more than 1200 hours and the lenses are still perfect.

I cut and trimmed the lenses with tin snips and finish sanded the edges on a full sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface. Just slide the lens back and forth. Makes a nice flat edge.

Dan Miller
RV-8 IO-360M1 with WW200RV prop. 1220+ hours of fun
 
Just a note of warning:
A lot of heat can build up in this area when the lights are on in there.
I used Kill-A-Watt LED position lights, and NOVA strobe tubes.
The strobe tubes get hot. I have heat dimples above the strobe tubes from ground testing. Perhaps the air flow during flight will keep mine cool enough, but prolonged ground running will be a problem.:(
Consider this when you mount your lights in there.
 
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