Click on a picture to
view a larger image.
When I posted on the Sonex group about my canopy woes, I got a lot of response on and off list about what to do.  There were a lot of good suggestions about how to prevent cracking, most of which I had employed and some of which I had not tried but decided to give a second look at.

The most upbeat assessment came from Phil Simon who said to just fix the one I cracked and keep going.  He sent me the two photos below of his cracked canopy. I had forgotten about his canopy field repairs. Note the two cracks fore and aft, both of which are longer than mine. I wrote him back that if nothing else, I would attempt to repair my canopy just for practice and the experience.
      In reviewing my first install attempt, I was happy with the temperature of the workspace, mid 80’s.  I was happy with the method of trimming using the bad saw with Kathy’s assistance and I was happy with my edge treatments and manual methods of sanding down to the final shape. That really left the area of remaining problems to drilling. The drill bit pictured below has has been rounded over per John’s hint’s for homebuilders video. However, unlike for the first canopy drilling, I have also polished the flutes smooth a good half inch down the shank of the drill. After more sample drilling I did not have any issues with the bit.