Material for templates

[Deyan 31]

I need a material you can see trough and it will not get damaged from the hoot knife.

I saw some kind of folio in the local store, but it was expensive and they couldn't tell if it's heat resistant.

Any ideas?

"My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

[darkwing 4]

Glass would work, but I wouldn't recommend it for other reasons. When I built canopies I used a sharpie and could very quickly trace around a template made on almost anything that was fairly stiff. Then I would remove the template and cut with the hot knife. I think I had some templates made from tempered masonite (not transparent) and could cut those without tracing.

I am a little curious why you need transparency? Pretty much any thing transparent is some version of plastic or glass. I don't know anything about high temperature transparent plastics. Part of the issue is how heavy your hand is with the hot knife against the template material. Cutting canopy fabric you can use a very light hand, but cordura and such require a heavier hand.

Then there is the alternative of using a rotary cutter, much more expensive, but not hot at least. Generally used for stack-cutting. For one-off cutting I think a hot-knifed edge is better though.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[ChrisClark 0]

I use some clear acrylic sheet bought from the local hardware store and have covered the edges with adhesive foil tape, a bit like binding. It works well and has lasted for many years now. I have also used thick mounting board for the art store but this is not transparent.

[skyrado 1]

Az biah re6il da napravia kopie na EZ-patch sus stukloplast.Ako polzva6 podhodia6ta debelina mislia 4e niama da ima problem!Ako i ska6 6te porazpitam tuk kak sa ne6tata!Dano tova ti pomogne! .... I edna holandska v dobavka! Cheers!

[Krip 2]

One Jump Wonder