Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Canopy Carving, Part 3

The bottom surface needs a concave curve to fit the shape of the nose cone.
Some 100 grit was wrapped around a used engine casing to remove some of the canopy bottom.

You'll have to constantly check the fit against the nose cone and remove any area that touches the nose cone. It will take some time to "gouge" out the bottom of the canopy.


Laminating thinner pieces of basswood together has an advantage when carving.
Look close at the top canopy. You can see the glued lamination. If they are straight and perpendicular the top surfaces are straight.

The bottom picture shows the underside. The oval shape underneath is another glued lamination. You can easily see which areas require more sanding to even out the oval shape.



The X-15 canopy has flat glass panes set into it.
A center line and some reference lines were drawn as sanding guides.
A sanding block with 220 grit was used to sand the flat surfaces.

The side of a pencil was rubbed over the raised edges to mark the borders. With the pencil line borders you can compare the two and make adjustments until they match.





Here's the finished canopy. The fit isn't 100% but any small voids will be filled with glue fillets.

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