That's a good tip, Steve. Hmmm, let me see. My Dremel is an antique, purchased
in the mid 1980's when I worked in a hobby shop in high school. It won't accept
the router attachments. However, my father-in-law has a newer version that
the router base will fit on. I'll go borrow his, buy a router base, and voila!
I can draw a template on AutoCad, cut a piece of 1/8th inch ply as a guide
and tack it to the wing with hotglue. Then just follow the template around
with the router base and I'll have a perfect cutout! Yeah!!!!
Shaun Simpkins had an equally kool idea - use a sharp compass or circle jig and
cut a ROUND access panel!
Man, you guys are great....
Chris
"Steve Hagar" <hagargs@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> Chris:
>
>
>
> I have found that when it is important that somethting be lined up or cut
> just right you don't depend on your hands to do it. Spending the time to
> fabricate fixtures, guides, or helpers is time well spent. This is especially
> true when something has to be done more than once. Dremel makes an attachment
> for their little machine that makes it look like a little router so you can
> hold
> it down with 2 hands. If you put something like a 1/8" milling bit into it you
> can plunge down into the wing. I would then fabricate a guide out of wood
> or aluminum to temporily glue to the wing surface to run the router edge along
> while cutting. Pick yourself a easily definable datum like a seam etc to
> register the guide the same on both wings. If the top of your wing is not on
you
> can drill a small hole through to the bottom surface exactly where you want
> your
> opening to start. Use this as the datum for the corner of your hole. At
> least doing it this way if you get it wrong you can get it exactly wrong the
> same way on the other side to and it looks like a professional job.
>
>
>
> Steve Hagar
>
> A143
>
> N40SH
>
> Mesa, AZ
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From:
>
>
>
> Subject: Cutting access
> panels
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi, all.
>
>
>
> I'm going to cut some access panels in the underside of our wings tomorrow
> for the strobe units. I am planning to mount the strobes (Aeroflash)
> right at the end of the spar at the wingtip, vertically to the spar by floxing
> in a set of bolts. The panel will be right by strobe unit, sized to
> just let the strobe pass through flat, as there is no room to tip it up on end
> to bring it through the small way once the skin is on.
>
>
>
> Anyway, the question I have is what is the best way to actually cut out the
> panel from the skin? I have a large Permagrit disk, some very small
> Dremel engraving bits, and a plain 'ol hacksaw handle (the kind that holds the
> blade from the end.
>
>
>
> I want to end up with a decent cut, not something that looks like it was
> done after a few pints of Guiness. Using a Dremel gives me the
> heebie-geebies as it's too easy to 'slip'. It's not like a hole where
> you can start small and size it gradually. A panel has to be done in
> one shot.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any tips, gang. Once the panel is out, it's easy from
> there with 3 layers of BID and some anchor nuts. Ditto for the
> strobes on the tips.
>
>
>
> Chris
>
> A159
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Steve Hagar
>
> --- hagargs@earthlink.net
>
>
>
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