I have a contact for an LA-local shop which drape-forms motorcycle
fairing windscreens (lots of them) and custom marine and general
aviation windscreens. They can use your old one as the mold (saving the
tooling time) or you can make your own and bring it to them. While I
know a lot of their old tools are plaster, they have started making
fiberglass tools (lighter, more durable for travel, etc).
They are used for the 'cool down' part of the process (obviously) so
urethane foam might be sufficient, but best to check with them. They
cooldown real slow to prevent springback - no fans - so it does have to
be able to handle stored heat for some time (10-30 minutes depending on
thickness).
I only mention this because foam is my preferred tooling method (easily
carvable, readily available, screw it up by undercutting and ya just add
more back). Wood bucks wood work fine if that is your skilled medium.
I have talked to one of their employees, (when he took a f-glass tooling
class I taught) and he told me they had never worked in Lexan, so I am
not sure how they are getting away with that on gen-av planes, as I
thought that was required. Maybe they only do side windows on those.
Questions welcomed.
Fergus O, 69 2L, HB, CA
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