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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  10-3-2013
Number of Hours:  2.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  El Grande Recorte

Who’s afraid of the big, bad cut? Nope. But I will admit to being slightly terrified of my RotoZip. With “The Big Cut” behind me, I have a couple of things that I would do different the next time, but all in all I was pretty pleased with how it went. The choice of using a RotoZip is probably the biggest change I would make—but it’s more due to the size and shape of the tool than anything else. My mini die grinder (air powered) has a very slim profile and the RotoZip necessarily is larger in order to contain an electric motor. This size differential played a role, especially as I wore the disk down. As I cut, I had to keep the tool square with the canopy and the size of the tool, coupled with my fingers—and the diameter of the disk constantly decreasing—caused me to have to make a slightly (very slightly) angled cut as I went along. I think the profile of the die cutter would have served me better. The good news is that the cut is straight…and finished. On to the details.

The temperature at the hangar was about 85 degrees inside (good) but there was a lot of local foot traffic in the area (bad). I was less concerned about the temps than the distractions, so I kept the main door closed and went to work measuring. The plans call for the cut to be 1/16” to 3/32” away from the face of a constantly bending round steel bar that is clamped to a big piece of floppy acrylic. This is of course no problem to measure. A Sharpie, ruler and some tape…it worked.

Frame in, frame out, and repeat x 3…or 4. Cut plastic, mark line, tape everything up…do whatever necessary to avoid the inevitable. Nothing left to do but cut. And in the end, the cutting was no big deal. As I cut I used the technique to stop every few inches and duct tape the two pieces together to avoid a big shift and potential crack. After I was finished I had the results shown in the last picture. Your results may vary. Clean up the edges, put the whole assembly on the frame and fuselage for safe keeping and off to the shower.
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High tech measuring with Sharpie taped to a ruler

High tech measuring with Sharpie taped to a ruler

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And then there were two...

And then there were two...

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Seems like a good place to store it

Seems like a good place to store it

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