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Found a trick to cure my canopy frame blues!!

M

MTBengel

Active Member
Found a cure for my canopy frame blues!!

Getting the frame to match the roll bar was not that hard but once I got it right the aft end was too wide. I fought and fought with this until I was ready to pull my hair out. I finally came up with a plan that made it easy to adjust both the height and width of the bow! I used ratcheting straps to incrementally tune the aft bends in a controlled manner click by click. To measure results just loosen things up. Be patient, don't try to do it all at once. The wooden bar acting as a spacer between the front bow is critical. Worked like a charm. Hope this helps someone else.

PS: Does anyone have a bullet proof way to drill the deldrin blocks for the rear pins on the slider frame?

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Grips

http://www.aircraftcontrolgrips.com/

Great handmade product except for the gloss finish. Fisheye and dust present. I removed the gloss finish and used a hand rubbed poly and they came out beautiful. For what they cost I expected a better finish though I must say the hand carved shape of the grip fits like a glove. I also replaced the heavy steel rings in the grips that clamped around the sticks (with set screws) with aluminum rings. Again, I would have hoped for more for what they cost.
 
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Adjusting

Nice tip, I'll be working on this within the next few weeks. Do you have a rough measurement you used for the wooden spacer.
 
I used a small wooden block

Mark, I used a small wooden block to test drill the whole in the delrin. After I was sure the lines I drew were correct, I drilled the wood block and fit it in place. Then I drilled the delrin and everything worked out fine. Hope this helps.
 
N9331v said:
Nice tip, I'll be working on this within the next few weeks. Do you have a rough measurement you used for the wooden spacer.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that each plane is a little different... I just got the front bow to match the rollbar as described in Vans plans and then made the wood spacer about 1/8" wider with a shallow V cut at each end so it would hold itself in place.
 
I guess everyone has a different experience. I spent two weeks(9 to 5) bending and flexing the canopy frame. I used bar clamps, ratchet straps and everything else I could think of but could not make it all line up at the same time. In despair I cut some of the welds so I could bend the tubes without affecting others. I was done and had it welded back up in under two hours.
This method is not for everyone but it worked great for me, I have a lot of experience welding chrome molly.
 
I don't know if the slider canopy frame is steel or aluminum, but on the tip-up it is aluminum and I spent a huge amount of time trying to get it to fit the curve of the fuselage correctly. I then cut the canopy and on initial fit of the plexiglass realized that all that work was wasted...the two different materials (the plexi and the aluminum) have to "come to an agreement" on where each will pull the other. In my case, the plexi pulled out so I had to refit the frame so it would slightly pull the plexi in to fit flush with the fuselage. Without the plexi on, the fit required the aluminum to be about
1/8" inboard of the widest part of the fueselage. I think everyone's plexi will be slightly different, but I think it best to wait to get anal retentive until after the plexi is cut and see where everything wants to pull. I used a shrinker/stretcher to get the fit right.

All Best

Jeremy Constant
 
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