Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddy
I designed my own using Visio, converted it to a CAD file and paid a local water jet place $100 to cut it out. Turned out exactly as intended.
|
Ditto! Most or all the avionics dealers will have the cad file for their devices available for download. Spend a few months contemplating the layout if you can, and bounce it off experience flyers for suggestions.
Then email it to a water jet shop and you'll be amazed at the precision you get for about $100. There is a radius minimum with WJ, but its pretty small and shouldn't be a factor. Example: I have a few 1/4" switch holes in the panel, they were drawn and cut with the anti-rotation tabs. These are very small and turned out functional but less than perfect. For everything else its fantastic, takes about 20 min to cut.
BTW, laser CNC shops near me agreed to do it, but said with aluminum there would be a slag mess to clean up when done, and suggested WJ instead.
Tim Andres