Making New Canopies for the Quad

  It has only been a few days with the new quadrotor and already I am looking at changing things. First of all let me say, this little machine is a lot of fun and performs very well. I am thinking much less about the actions of my thumbs on the controls, and like Luke Skywalker just feel what should be happening and the quad responds.

Before I destroy the canopy, I want to make a mould of it so I can make copies. This will give me the opportunity to make changes to the copies and keep the original untouched.  The first thing to do was to remove the LEDs from the canopy. They were held in with hot glue and popped out quite easily. I then took about 2/3s of a mini hot glue stick and drilled holes in the ends to accept the LEDs. I pushed the LEDs in and hot glued the glue sticks in place.

Now the canopy can be removed and changed easily and the light is more visible when flying since it is under the canopy. 

Now to make the mould. I took a small pan and filled it with sand. This allows me to position the canopy up side down and fill it without it rolling around on the counter. All of the holes in the canopy  ( from the LEDs and the mounting holes) are covered with tape.

All it takes from there is a mixture of plaster of paris poured to the top.

Once it is dry simply pop it out and fill any small holes. The smoother you can pour it, and the less air you trap, the less filling you will have to do. This is what my finished product looked like.

Now that the mould is done it is time to make copies of the canopy. I did not have any access to clear styrene sheets, but my local Lowes had lots of styrene for making signs. There was green and pink and I also bought some yellow neighborhood watch signs to see how they would turn out. My vacuform "machine" is an old cigar box with holes drilled in the top, and two small wooden frames to hold the plastic. I also used a cheap single electric burner to heat the plastic.

Here is the styrene being heated:

And here is the mould ready to go:

Once the styrene starts to sag in the middle it is time to move it over the mould, press down, and turn on the vacuum. In just a second the work is done. In order to get a good crisp bottom edge, be sure and raise the mould off the box slightly by putting some washers or a few quarters under it.  I used some dimes and it was not quite high enough.

I made a few while I had everything set up, and I even tried the "neighborhood watch" sign too. Since it is styrene it glues easily with most plastic glues, so I tried a adding a tail fin to the yellow canopy.  You can see the lettering from the sign raising through to the outside.

With the lights on it looks like it has been vandalized:

In green:

All 3 canopies nest together nicely and fit in the case with everything else.

MakeOn TomMadeO