Brief Description: Canopy Part Duex - Cutting & Fitting - Part 1
After the completely disheartening canopy installation crack a couple of months ago, I haven't been too anxious to start the process all over again. Saturday morning I got up feeling good and in an equally good state of mind. I decided I was tired of pulling and soldering wires and that it was about time I tackled that second try at the canopy installation. Buying a new always makes me feel better, so while at the hardware store the night before, I found a super sweet cutting tool called the RotoZip. Its actually made to cut holes in sheet rock and counter tops and normally uses a drillbit-like blade to cut. The "deluxe" kit included a cutoff wheel attachment and I got the great idea that it would probably hold up to cutting the Plexiglass a lot better than the pneumatic cutoff tool I'd used on the first canopy. The pneumatic cutoff tool was too underpowered for the job and it took me well over an hour the first time to just cut off the canopy base. With the new RotoZip and the supplied 3" metal cutting wheel, I cut the base off the canopy this time in about 10 minutes! Amazing! Compared to the pneumatic tool, the RotoZip has got a TON of power and was a little scary at first, but as I got used to it, and now I really like it.
I used the old canopy as a pattern to do the initial cut on the new canopy. I cut it about 1" bigger all the way a round. I guess using the old one as a pattern speeded things up a little, but really just having the experience from the first one speeded things up more.
