First, Build a Shed

[Cherrybark]

Took a couple of readings of the bubble door instructions and a call to John McBean before I was ready to tackle fitting the door glass. The first cut, fitting the top of the glass to the hinge area, went well enough but it was very slow. The thin, brittle cutoff wheels, purchased with my ancient Dremel, took several passes and snapped if they weren't held true to the cut. After the top cut, I peeled back the plastic from the outside of the bubble and marked a dashed cutting line.

The material to be cutaway was wide along one side so I decided to use a Jigsaw to remove excess material before doing the final, closer cut with the Dremel. The crack in the bubble door just appeared. Didn't even have the courtesy to make a sound! That stopped work for the day.

The crack was a couple of inches long in the corner of the window near the passenger's elbow. Seemed like the perfect spot for an EAA decal so I used an acrylic bit to drill a stop hole and the cutting job continued with just the Dremel wheels. Found the second crack while polishing the rim with a sanding block. This one ran across a triangle of the bubble and meant the end of the road for this piece of acrylic. My tinted bubble was now a nice practice piece of acrylic. For the record, the close toothed side of a Japanese Ryoba hand saw is an interesting cutting tool for acrylic.

Frustrated with the bubbles, I switched to sloshing and leak testing the fuel tanks. Then busied myself checking a few items of the Fall ToDo list: clean gutters, mulch leaves, put up Christmas lights, move plants into the greenhouse - anything to put off fitting the second bubble.

In an email exchange, Eddie (EFWD) said he had good results with the Dremel EZ Lock Plastic cutoff wheels. This evening I started work on the second bubble and the cuts are much easier with the right tool. I'll fit the door to the pilot side frame and, not really expecting Santa to be that generous, get in touch with Debra and order a replacement for the passenger side.

The picture is of a cut in progress. The plastic is peeled back from both sides of the bubble and taped out of the way. Then a piece of 3M green tape is laid along the cut line and a strip of aluminum clamped to act as a guide. You'll see a strip of green tape under a clamp on the left. This secures the end of an already cut section so it doesn't flop around loosely stressing the glass still being cut. I think a wobbly cutoff piece caused one of my cracks.