Old dog learns new trick

From: Bill Gowen <b.gowen_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:27:02 -0000

This is one of those things that might be obvious to everyone else but
here goes anyway:

I've always trimmed my Mylar covered surfaces by cutting the Mylar
with a 15 watt soldering iron with the flying surface outline resting
on top of the film. Today I tried turning the frame upside down so
that the flying surfaces were resting on the table with the film and
the frame on top. This worked a lot better for me.

I had a thick layer of paper under the frame to protect the table top.
Then I was able to rest the tip of the soldering iron on the table
while cutting around the wing or stab outline. The advantage was that
it was much easier to guide the tip with less chance of shaking and
getting off line. This also made it easy to cut the film just outside
of the outline so that a little flap of film could be wrapped over the
edge of the spar. I found this very difficult to do when cutting while
the frames were suspended in the air. I left the end cuts until last
to stabilize the piece while I was trimming.

Still another advantage of this method is that before cutting the film
you can go around the outline and press the film down with a brush or
your finger to make sure the film is attached everywhere.
Bill Gowen
Decatur, GA USA
Received on Thu Aug 10 2006 - 07:27:36 CEST