|
Reply to aerobike
Hi Roger, thanks for dropping by! In answer to your question, yes I have been following your blog closely and I paid great attention to the canopy saga. In fact, your experience was influential on my decision to make my own machine.
I have a plastics company locally with excellent experience of free-blowing, but after consulting with them I decided to go my own route, for better or worse. Sometimes these decisions come down to cost and sometimes it’s a principle. When I took this decision it was both! Mostly my time is less valuable than money, so for the cost of one blown canopy I have built an entire machine, which assuming it can be made to work, will represent a good investment. Also, after learning about this fabrication method I am keen to use it for all my exterior body panels. This way I get light simple, yet high quality bodywork, which can be easily replicated and altered to keep pace with my designs.
Initially I got hold of a copy of an industry standard book on the design of vacuum forming machines, and after stripping out the mainstream stuff about high-volume machines, I was able to distil all the useful knowledge into my design. I don’t expect perfect results first time, and I’m sure there is a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I think that long-term I will be ahead-of-game.
I have two damaged glider canopies, which I am using to make my former. The design is a very good fit for my prototype but I’m not expecting to get it right first time and I can make changes for just the material cost. Also another benefit is that if I’m unlucky enough to have a testing crash like your one, I can repair at low cost. On that note, I’d love to get more detail on the crash. There is so little info on how these full-bodied machines perform in sidewinds, you must have a wealth of experience you could impart.
|