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Thanks Ryan! We may end up doing that as well.

I used a stick with an angle cut in the end to back up the lexan, while Adam drilled.


One side clecoed in:


It seems like it would be easier to drill the windshield bow first, then transfer the holes.

We made a little tool to mark our holes in the bow. It centers the bit, and sets up the entry to be perpendicular to the windshield.


Next we went to the drill press and V block to run the holes through.


Finally we transferred the holes to the lexan.

smart! I'm going to copy that one! ;-)

Hi bryan,
Good to see u back at it. Hope to get ours up from tucson osh -18. Would be a pleasure to park next to you and adams creation! Cheers keep at it!! Maybe kevin will make it too!!

Waiex N143NM
Michael

Thanks guys! Hope we have a strong turnout for the Sonex brotherhood in 2018. Not sure if we have any sisters in the ranks, time will tell. One other detail in that last picture: see the Gnu vises? It is clamping an angle to the rear wing mount angle. There is a small piece of angle (hovercraft motor bracket, actually) on top of it. It is holding the bow from sliding down. We tapped it up so the bow was tight then locked it in place on either side.

Small block of wood to get the entry/angle correct!! Great idea...I never felt happy about drilling holes into a round bar.

Here Adam is drilling his side for the bow mount​. We have trimmed the lexan. I wish Sonex had not routered that groove for the bow.

I did not have a countersink for an 11/64" hole. Instead we used our deburring tools. It worked good. We put a #8 dimple in scrap to check the countersink depth.

Here I am using my fan spacer to pilot the longeron hinge.


We elected to make those plywood pieces as we were ready for that step. I marked the turtedeck curve after we pinned the rough cut wood to the tooling holes, then used scrap lexan to mark the cut line.


Soon we will make the first cut.

We have made our first few cuts. So far, so good. We drilled a hole to pick up the center bow screw as the masking tape could not hold the canopy down.


We also used a ratchet strap for the same reason.


Here I am sanding the edges.


Time to put it away for the night.