Novel (?) use of box cutter

[john firth]

this technique may be known to many repairers, but I had not heard of it.

recent repair of upper skin damage required filling (epoxy and Micro balloons)

with a mylar cover on the patch.

this leaves a patch slightly proud of the surface; my usual technique

had been to use a wet sanding block to bring it in line with the surface.

this results in the removal of adjoining  wing surface, slightly spoiling the profile.

the excess can be removed using a box cutter long very sharp  blade aligned 

with the wing axis to shear off the excess without  removing adjacent gel coat

The blade angle has to be very carefully held parallel to the skin and will

remove epoxy film as thin as 2-3 thou.  the result should be very close

to the original profile.  ( except for the paint on the patch

this idea can also be used  on two dimensional surfaces by bending the blade.

Tell me this  is old /new stuff!

cheers

John firth  

Ottawa.