micro-mesh

Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits? My canopy had an unfortunate meeting with the ramp today, and after two hours with Novas #3 it still needs attention. It is an acrylic material, and the scratches are not really deep, but I can fell them with my finger.. I flew it after the incident, and my visibility was okay? Off to look for more booze in this house.
Thank you!
MT

Hi,

I have used micro mesh kits in the past, not on the glider canopy but on big airliner window panels. It's still acrylic so It should worki the same. Micro mesh is great for final polishing but to remove the scratches you usually need to use much more rough wet or dry (sand paper). Sometimes I was starting with grade 150, but that was only in extreme cases, something like 600 should be sufficient in most cases and of course a lot of water. It's hard to suggest what grade you should use without seeing the canopy but as I said you need to remove a bit of material first to remove scratches and then go with the kit to restore transparency. Just bear in mind that doing so may and will create some distortions so if the scratches are somewhere right in front of your eyes and they are not so deep I'd be very carefull with removing them as it may be worse to look at distorted canopy then at some minor scratches.

brgds
Piotr

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 8:27:40 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits? My canopy had an unfortunate meeting with the ramp today, and after two hours with Novas #3 it still needs attention. It is an acrylic material, and the scratches are not really deep, but I can fell them with my finger.. I flew it after the incident, and my visibility was okay? Off to look for more booze in this house.
Thank you!
MT

I've used it to remove crazing from my canopy. It works well but it takes a lot of effort and some degree of courage as the instructions suggest starting with a fairly coarse grade of paper and progressively working through finer grades, the very fine grades included in the kit and finally the kit polishing compounds. I sat there for a while with the 180 grit wrapped around the backing pad before working up the nerve to start in on the canopy with it. If the scratches are on a fairly limited area you may be able to get away with only working on that area but I had to do the entire surface to get rid of the crazing as it was fairly deep.

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:27:40 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits?

Yes, used it several times. Beautiful results Occasionally had to use slightly coarser grit than that which comes with the kit to get a deep scratch out. Don't be shocked by how horrible it looks when you first start! And do not use circular motions, only back-and-forth. And be patient - doing a good job will take quite a bit of time.

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:27:40 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits?

Not for 3 whole days now (helped a friend who dinged his canopy)...

A canopy is very expensive.
Before you potentially make it worse, do yourself a favor:
Find someone local and EXPERIENCED to help you with this.
Its not rocket science, but its also really easy to make a big mess,
with flat spots, scratches remaining, etc.

I would not use anything coarser than 800.
It won't take any more time than you'll spend removing scratches
from coarser grits (plexi is soft), and rather less risky.

Sand wet.

I use a combination:

1) Wet papers from a MicroMesh kit.

2) Polish using this one:
http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotS...c4IaAhIK8P8HAQ

Good luck!
See ya, Dave

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:27:40 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits? My canopy had an unfortunate meeting with the ramp today, and after two hours with Novas #3 it still needs attention. It is an acrylic material, and the scratches are not really deep, but I can fell them with my finger.. I flew it after the incident, and my visibility was okay? Off to look for more booze in this house.
Thank you!
MT

Same topic but a more frequent use: polishing.

40 years ago the go to polish was Mirrorglaze, a mil spec
product.

I bought another bottle a year or two ago and had a bad
result; if the liquid is left for even a minute or so without polishing it will polymnerise in patches which are very tough and hard to polish out.

Anyone have any comments on this?

eg what is the current goto polish?

cheers

John firth

On Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 8:36:21 AM UTC-7, firsys wrote:
On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:27:40 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits? My canopy had an unfortunate meeting with the ramp today, and after two hours with Novas #3 it still needs attention. It is an acrylic material, and the scratches are not really deep, but I can fell them with my finger.. I flew it after the incident, and my visibility was okay? Off to look for more booze in this house.
Thank you!
MT

Same topic but a more frequent use: polishing.

40 years ago the go to polish was Mirrorglaze, a mil spec
product.

I bought another bottle a year or two ago and had a bad
I used the Novus plastic polish kit. You can find it on amazon. It works fairly well after sanding with the micromesh kit.

Sanding out scratches is a HUGE undertaking. I litterally spent over 100 hours sanding half a canopy after fixing a crack near the vent window.

A better product than the micromesh was the 3M Trizact sheets that come in super fine grits and last longer than the micromesh paper.



result; if the liquid is left for even a minute or so without polishing it will polymnerise in patches which are very tough and hard to polish out.

Anyone have any comments on this?

eg what is the current goto polish?

cheers

John firth

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 8:27:40 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Has anyone used the micro-mesh kits? My canopy had an unfortunate meeting with the ramp today, and after two hours with Novas #3 it still needs attention. It is an acrylic material, and the scratches are not really deep, but I can fell them with my finger.. I flew it after the incident, and my visibility was okay? Off to look for more booze in this house.
Thank you!
MT

About 12 years ago or so my Libelle canopy went flying off from behind my head after landing at a windy airport and did a pirouette on the tarmac.
The lesson learned obviously is that if you own a one piece canopy (I don't own this Libelle any longer), wait until help arrives and secure the canopy on real windy days.
The canopy had numerous deep scratches, I almost cried.
My mentor Marty Eiler instructed me on the proper procedures and must say it worked out very well but took more time than I care to admit to fix it.
I think I started wet sending with 150 grid, utilizing a strong flood light under the canopy, and a strong magnifying glass until the scratches were no longer visible. It is critical to sand with even strokes, than followed up with the next higher grid on a 45 angle, again until the previous sanding is no longer visible through the magnifier.
And so on, all the way up to 2000 grid. If the scratches are not as deep as mine were, I would start off with a much higher grid than you think you need, and lower the grid if it does not completely eliminate the scratches.
Marty helped me out on the end with a power polisher and compound but one certainly can do this by hand with the polishing compound in the micro mash kit provided.
The real trick here is tons of patient, don't try to do this the day before you want to fly, it will never happen, best to leave for the off season, many nights out in the garage or basement.
6PK

I decided not to use Micro Mesh, and instead went with Novus
polish 3,2,1 along with the drill bit attachment buffer kit.
I am happy to report pretty good results.
Not perfect, but what's wrong with a few character scars?
I was told by the Novus rep that the #3 is equal to 600 grit
and #2 is 1200 grit sandpaper. It's just that after you
rub the polish off, you can see clearly. I used a 8 oz bottle of each 2 and 3. The entire canopy only took a few hours work.
Good stuff!!!