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Vac forming advice needed


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What does work well when vacuum forming if you're struggling with a good finish, is to vac over a vac. So vacuum form as usual then cut away the excess around the edge of your plug making sure your air holes are exposed again then vac over it again. Hey presto you've got an immaculate finish.

To get it off and I promise you this works a treat is get an airline with a nozzle and place it roughly near the plug and the vac form surface and blast a bit of air between, this gets the most recalcitrant vac form off any mould.

Graham 

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11 hours ago, Iain (32SIG) said:

Just to add - I've used the 0.5mm on the Spitfire canopies - I'd use 1mm for anything larger.

 

But 0.5 has been perfect for these:

 

48b427_39458f8d40bf4899b3745b19befff52b~

 

48b427_574c2d5c2b4c4245a7aa398c010b09d4~

 

48b427_ebb59fcdd5cf4947a96f072224278d51~

 

Blue Skies!

 

Iain

That looks like a feat Iain! Did you move everything including the frames forward a scale 13.5 inches? I was at one point considering a conversion kit to make this but decided nobody would want it.

Graham

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Great photos, Damian, thanks! I learned a few good things from these:

1. It would appear that the MGs stay put when the canopy slides back, and the barrels just sort of retract back into the boot. That would explain why they are always level when the canopy is open, and sticking up when it's closed. 

2. The caption explains that that the thing below the gun is not the mount, but a leather chute that drops the spent casings into a basket or bag. That would mean the Aires pit and the kit pit are misleading in that they mount the guns on this springy thingy, that is actually a flexible chute. That means the guns must be mounted to something solid on the fairing underneath them.

3. It looks like the bubble shaped part of the canopy actually swivels with the guns, meaning that it's rounded where it overlaps on the inside, too. 

4. There is some type of canvas sheet hanging across the back of the cockpit, not the open back the kits and AM would suggest.

5. Interesting that in one photo, the ammo belts are hanging loose, and in the other, there is a feed chute. I wonder which was more common? It also is odd that they belts are shown only on the left side, but the kit and all the AM for it have ammo boxes on both sides. How the heck would that work?

 

Anyone else have any thoughts?

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It does help, thanks!  So the ammo does feed from both sides, and then ejects upward into the collectors and out the bottom. The one pic even shows the mounting bracket!!

 

Now if I could just see how the bracket mounts to the plane...

Edited by BiggTim
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