JurgenRoeland
Well Known Member
Hi all,
I've reached the point where I can start strimming the canopy.
Like many people, after drilling the canopy latch 5/8 hole I felt the first time the increase in blood pressure and freaked out about cracking the bubble. 5/8 is one **** of a hole in your expensive and fragile canopy.
Now the plans call for trimming the molding flanges off.
Unfortunatly I live in a cold climate and it's winter time in Belgium. Even in summer we don't get high temps.
I've tried getting my workshop over 80degrees but without succes.
Alternatively, when I cut the hole, I heated up the canopy from underneath the bubble with an electric heating element and got the inside the bubble temp up to 93degrees.
The bubble loved it as the material heated up nicely even though the surrounding temp was only about 70 degrees. So I drilled the holes while it was heating from underneath.
What I'm wondering is how safe it is to turn the canopy around in it's warm state and start cutting the flanges off without the additional heating underneath. Basically my question is, is there any danger in the variations of temperature over short period of time each time exposing it to additional heat and then cutting for 10 minutes and turning it back around to reheat it again in incremental steps.
Secondly, I read in a couple posts here that enlarging and existing pilot hole using a drill bit is a no no..
Does this also apply if you use these special pointy acrylic drill bits ? (so a #40 pilot in acrylic and then enlarging it to 5/32 using an acrylic drill bit) I found the canopy to be too thick for needle unibit. I have the impression you always countersink the hole with the next step size.
gr
Jurgen
I've reached the point where I can start strimming the canopy.
Like many people, after drilling the canopy latch 5/8 hole I felt the first time the increase in blood pressure and freaked out about cracking the bubble. 5/8 is one **** of a hole in your expensive and fragile canopy.
Now the plans call for trimming the molding flanges off.
Unfortunatly I live in a cold climate and it's winter time in Belgium. Even in summer we don't get high temps.
I've tried getting my workshop over 80degrees but without succes.
Alternatively, when I cut the hole, I heated up the canopy from underneath the bubble with an electric heating element and got the inside the bubble temp up to 93degrees.
The bubble loved it as the material heated up nicely even though the surrounding temp was only about 70 degrees. So I drilled the holes while it was heating from underneath.
What I'm wondering is how safe it is to turn the canopy around in it's warm state and start cutting the flanges off without the additional heating underneath. Basically my question is, is there any danger in the variations of temperature over short period of time each time exposing it to additional heat and then cutting for 10 minutes and turning it back around to reheat it again in incremental steps.
Secondly, I read in a couple posts here that enlarging and existing pilot hole using a drill bit is a no no..
Does this also apply if you use these special pointy acrylic drill bits ? (so a #40 pilot in acrylic and then enlarging it to 5/32 using an acrylic drill bit) I found the canopy to be too thick for needle unibit. I have the impression you always countersink the hole with the next step size.
gr
Jurgen
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