The BIG cut!

Well, we did it! On a beautiful warm SoCal day, I conquered my fear, and made the big cut.

I watched the VAF forums for advice, waited for a warm day, built a custom table, measured fifty times and finally did the work.

Here is a tip we did (your mileage may vary)
As we were clamping and marking the frame, it kept moving a bit and would come out of the hole in the plexiglass. We finally put a bolt with rubber washers through the handle hole and the plexi to hold it in place while marking. See last picture.

We have a good fit and I think very little trimming to do.

I just wanted to say the BEST idea we had was the Dremel Saw-Max with wood/plastic blade. Worked perfect.

The Warrior




The weapon



The result



Here is how we held the frame centered for marking after clamping



CC

Great job there "New Guy"!!

Great work!!

Now that it is done you can see this is much like a roller coaster ride, the anticipation is worse than the reality.

Are you planning on using Sika or the mechanical fasteners?

For those getting near the canopy stage do yourself a huge favor and get the Dremel Saw Max. So much easier than the die grinder with a cutting wheel.

Nice to see more progress and this is a big step forward. Once you get the canopy done, it is all downhill!

Let me know when you need a motivation flight.

I'm following the Vans method of mechanical fasteners. I think the mechanical fasteners will be OK to do, but I do like the Sika! Went a visited a project in Bakersfield that looked Beautiful!

Yes, it WAS scary! $1100.00 mistake if you goof. It looks really nice to me now.

Next scary event? Maybe mounting the cowl.

RV7Guy said:

Now that it is done you can see this is much like a roller coaster ride, the anticipation is worse than the reality.

Are you planning on using Sika or the mechanical fasteners?

For those getting near the canopy stage do yourself a huge favor and get the Dremel Saw Max. So much easier than the die grinder with a cutting wheel.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the photos and inspiration. Canopy is up next after the baffling (which will certainly take me into the months where the ambient temp is nice and hot!).