Has anyone every messed around with vacuum forming larger components, not just canopies, out of acrylic or polycarbonate sheet? I was thinking about easier and neater ways to install LED position/strobe lights in a composite wingtip and it occurred to me that the whole wingtip could be made out of one piece of clear plastic.
You could then mask and paint the areas that didn't need to be painted. Painting inside rather than out might make for a neat effect. If you did nice work, entirely transparent wingtips might even look cool. If you didn't need to install lights, then you could use opaque sheets. that wouldn't require painting at all.
Yes, it would mean making a solid form (actually, two, one left and one right unless you are using a symmetrical airfoil) and rigging up a vacuum table and some sort of makeshift oven. That still sounds more fun to me than working with icky fiberglass and resin. Here is a fun little clip.
PS--Sorry, I am repeating myself again, need to search my own past threads first. ;-p
https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/...wl-wingtips-tailcone-heat-formed-acrylic.html
You could then mask and paint the areas that didn't need to be painted. Painting inside rather than out might make for a neat effect. If you did nice work, entirely transparent wingtips might even look cool. If you didn't need to install lights, then you could use opaque sheets. that wouldn't require painting at all.
Yes, it would mean making a solid form (actually, two, one left and one right unless you are using a symmetrical airfoil) and rigging up a vacuum table and some sort of makeshift oven. That still sounds more fun to me than working with icky fiberglass and resin. Here is a fun little clip.
PS--Sorry, I am repeating myself again, need to search my own past threads first. ;-p
https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/...wl-wingtips-tailcone-heat-formed-acrylic.html
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