Re: Old dog learns new trick

From: Nick Aikman <nickaikman_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:42:26 -0000

Greetings Bill,

Try throwing the soldering iron away! I use a new scalpel blade in
it's handle to cut all films including Y2K2. The handle gives more
control in case of the shakes and I cut into a soft pine building
board which helps to stop the blade from wandering by trapping it as
you slowly move along. The only time I use a cautery is with F1D
props. With thick films like mylar, you can turn the wing upsidedown
and use a steel rule as a guide for the scalpel along straight
sections. All other lighter films can be cut from the top.

The edge produced is neat and clean and easy to tidy up afterwards.

Nick.

--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Bill Gowen"
<b.gowen_at_...> wrote:
>
> 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 - 13:42:29 CEST