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How to cut the panel?

R

RScott

Well Known Member
I want to cut my panel into thirds to make it so I can pull sections out if I need to do anything behind it--I have a slider. I want clean, straight cuts with a small kerf.

My band saw won't cut acceptably straight and the kerf would be too wide, as it would be with anything else I have to cut with.

A local shop wants $100 minimum to laser cut it. Seems a little high, to me.

Is that price unreasonable?

Any other techniques?

Thanks for your help.
 
The $100 minimum is reasonable as it takes a certain amount of time to set the thing up, etc. that has to get amortized over the job.

The key is to get several things you want done at once and you can probably get the entire lot for the same $100.

Alternative would be a waterjet cutter - check to see if a shop in your area advertises having one. Advantage of waterjet is no heating of the cut zone. One aircraft modification company I do work for will not allow laser for this reason as the cut heat treats the cut zone changing the temper, etc.

You will still have a minimum charge for the waterjet as well and might be even higher.

Check sign shops also as the more sophisticated ones are adding waterjets as well.
 
Price is ..........

more than reasonable. I drew my panel out on autocad completely, then had it cut. I sectioned mine into thirds as you plan, used a sub panel to mount to. Worked out great.

http://img140.imageshack.us/i/1stflight002.jpg/

Check out the above link for a picture of the finished panel.
 
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sheet metal shearing

See if you can find a sheet metal fabrication shop near you and have the shear it. No loss of metal.
 
really necessary?

I know you are asking how to do it, but I wonder whether it is really worth the effort - if you are using glass in the panel, I would think that big enough holes are being cut to give useful access - I wonder what Stein or other panel builders think about the modular panels?
Bill Brooks
Ottawa, Canada
RV-6A finishing kit
 
$100 is good to get a panel cut...we can't do it for that (with CAD time and such) with our own large/fast CNC in house.

A shear is best, if you're close to just about any airport someone will have a foot shear to hack it into pieces if you want.

Now, that being said modular panels have really waned in popularity now that the EFISes are typically very decent sized...you remove the screen and you have a big hole to work through. The modular panel were great in the day when people like me had steam gauges all the way around, but now with big glass it's just quite frankly a waste of space, time, weight and money. You lose at least 3/4" all the way around plus for each horizontal part of the frame. That means almost 2" of usable space lost vertically and nearly 4" horizontally. Some people make the panel larger to accommodate that, but now you're creating solutions to a problem that wasn't there. Another thing to take into consideration is that on paper the modular idea looks great, but in reality they are rarely modular at all. You have lots of stuff connected to each panel that in order to take advantage of the plates coming out means that you have huge service loops on the wire/coax/tubing/p-leads/vents/etc..

Basically you'll find that unless you do a major panel retrofit, the likelihood of actually removing a plate for routine maintenance is just not practical.

My 2 cents as usual!

Cheers,
Stein
 
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I made my own panels using a shear.

Start reading my web site on page 35: http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a035.htm

Read through the next pages and you will see how I did it all in text and photos. I spent way less than $100 in gas driving to the airport where I used the metal shear.

When you look at page 40, you see the structural "frame" that remains from the original Van's instrument panel that has a thickness of 0.062". My road sign sub-panels are 0.075" thick. On page 51, you will see me beginning the radio stack work. There is more panel work on page 56 and 57. At the bottom of page 58, you can see how I used my Dremel scroll saw to cut the aluminum. All the round instrument holes were cut with a "fly-cutter" in my drill press at the lowest speed. You can see photos of cutting a hole on page 75 and painting the first sub-panel on page 76. More panel work on pages 80, 82, 83, 86 and 87 where it all comes together on my kitchen counter before parts of it go back into the fuselage.

Check out the January 27, 2005 posting on page 89 where I list all the connections to the main sub-panel, both electrical and air line connections. Page 95 shows how I created access hatches behind the panel for ease of servicing the radio stack wiring and to rivet the forward top skin on by myself. Page 112 has the fully-loaded panel in the airplane. Page 130 has another panel view during final assembly and testing at the airport.
 
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mine

I cut my own modular panel by cutting-out sections within Vans' panel and then cutting plates to go over top out of sheet the same thickness as Vans' panel.
http://www.c-func.com/images/panel_frame.jpg
I cut this using two tools... a die grinder with a cutoff wheel running along a piece of aluminum angle for hte long straight cuts, and a dremel tool with a smaller cutting wheel for the curves. Then a straight hand-file to finish it off. The results were pleasing.
For hte instrument holes in the top plates, I am lucky enough to have a friend who is a professional machinist with an expensive CNC machine.
 
Good answers, thanks. I was in a mindset of cutting the panel too far inboard to use a shear--shears I am familiar with can only cut a flat surface and the panel has a flange on the bottom except for the outermost few inches. So a cut with a shear farther outboard would work.

OTOH, Stein has given me good food for thought with the notion of the EFIS displays giving good access without modifying the panel.

Back to the drawing board!
 
If you do decide you really want to cut a panel, you can purchase an oversize RV-6 panel from Van's (about $50) and use your table saw. Though the saw will have a 1/8" kerf, the panel is big enough that you can just slide the cut pieces together, leaving you with a perfect seam. I did this with my panel (for different reasons) and it worked great. Good luck.
 
Don't cut the flange part of Van's panel.

Richard,

You need to look again at my photos on pages mentioned in my previous post and what Phil described. We did NOT use the shear on Van's original panel. I used my Dremel scroll saw after drilling holes with the unibit where the rounded inside corners are located. The removed areas of the "frame" from Van's original panel clear all the instruments when the new flat panel is installed. We cut out sections ONLY to keep the outer frame of the original panel intact as a structural member to attach to the three ribs up front, the canopy deck and longeron area, and the upper skin. Notice how I changed my mind about removing part of the original panel on the left side. My parking brake control knob was later installed in that area. The same area on the right side of the original panel got the cabin heat control knob.
DSCG0208.JPG


You can see in this photo how the frame accepts the sub-panel on the passenger side, and the switch/breaker panels and throttle mounting plates below the bent flange of Van's original panel. The radio stack already has the aluminum angles that stiffen the stack area and attach to the various baskets that hold the transponder and radios that come later. You need to read the August 21, 2004 entry on my PAGE 50 to learn some important details about getting the radio stack mounting angles installed correctly. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a050.htm
DSCK0312.JPG


Here is a view of my scroll saw cutting out a portion of my right sub-panel to accept a CD/Tape player combo unit. I used this same technique on Van's original panel to open up the large areas for instrument clearance of the structural frame that remained. When the cuts are completed, use a good vixen file and Scotchbrite pads to smooth the edges of the cuts from the scroll saw. Use scroll saw blades with the most teeth to get a smooth cut.
DSCK0308.JPG


The panel sections you make from flat plate aluminum are sheared to make the main instrument sub-panel and the smaller panel for the right side of the radio stack. Both of these are removable. I matched-drilled all the holes in both of my sub-panels to the holes in the original frame from Van's panel. The I enlarged every other hole in the sub panels to clear the screw heads that ALWAYS hold the frame of Van's panel to the structure of the fuselage.

Look at this photo below and you will see what I am talking about. Look at the screw above the ELT test panel. It is one of the screws that secures the instrument panel to the frame of Van's original panel. Now look at the screw above and to the right of the green LED for COM XMIT and you will see the clearance hole in my sub-panel around the screw installed in Van's original panel "frame" that is behind my removable panel. That particular screw is one of three that connect to the three forward top ribs between the instrument panel and the firewall. There is another "clearance hole" around a "frame" screw half hidden behind the upper left corner of my GPS 296.
DSCM0100.JPG


Looking back at this photo during construction, you can see the "screw clearance holes" better. Those two holes left of the air speed indicator are for headphone and microphone jacks. You should look closely at my PAGE 87 to see how I made some last minute changes to the way the headset and microphone plugs were mounted. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a087.htm
DSCK0358.JPG


Here is one more view of the finished panel showing the screws across the bottom edge of my removable instrument panel. Those screws only hold the sub-panel to the bottom of Van's original panel. Look at the top photo in this post and you will see the bottom curved flange of Van's original panel is still intact. That flange is holding both of my switch/breaker panels as seen at the bottom edge of this photo. They are mounted the same way as the throttle/mixture/prop control panel.
DSCN0015.JPG


Don't be alarmed about the red LED on the electronic fuel guage. That was an intermittent connection to the capacitive fuel sensors in the right wing tank. It was fixed after getting home from this first LONG cross-country trip after coming out of the paint shop. That photo was taken on the last leg of my first trip to Oshkosh 2005, the Great Lakes area, Ohio, New Jersey, New England, and the return trip to Chattanooga.
 
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use a router

I made the cutouts for my panel with a router and a spiral bit. you first need to make a pattern from 1/8 inch hard board, then make a template from 1/2 inch MDF using the hard board as your guide. then calmp the MDF on to the panel drill a hole and start your router. making the patterns and templates is the hard part, the routing only takes a few minutes. email me if you want more info I have some pictures.

100_1937.jpg
 
Jerry & Claude,

Thanks for your info. Jerry, you certainly gave me a thorough answer and it's a different approach from what I had in mind--similar to Affordable Panels who seem to have disappeared. More ideas, more food for thought.

Claude, I have used a router elsewhere with excellent results. Instead of a template, I just clamped pieces of 1 x 2 to the sheet I was cutting and used that as a guide. Worked very well; I just had to be careful when I approached the end of the intended opening.

In the case of my original question, all I had in mind was to slice the panel into thirds, and install backing plates behind the cuts to hold the pieces together. It's what Dann Park did for his fold down panel and it worked well. But now I see other ideas and I'll have other options to think about.

Everybody's answers have been helpful.

Thanks!
 
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