[WingnutWick]

Hello all.

I have recently purchased a Dynon D1A and a D10EMS for my RV-8 and am looking to make a new panel. I am a relatively new airplane owner and am learning the intricacies of working on it as I go. That being said I am totally new to the prospect of creating a panel. I have the plank sheet metal panel from VANS, and my question is how do I cut this for the instruments? Do most people just send it in to get laser cut or is one able to do it themselves with relative ease? Finally, what type of paint is used and how do people go about making markings/text on the panel.

Thank you for the help!

Wingnut

PS: Any ballpark cost estimate if I just paid someone to do it?

 

[humptybump]

Hi Charles!

welcome to the club

You can send it out or do it yourself. Had you not already bought a blank from Vans I would have suggested you buy two. Doing it yourself can be rewarding but it's easy to make a mistake and having the 2nd blank takes some of the self loathing out of the process ... I have experience.

I cut square holes using a cut off disk in a die grinder. I cut the big round holes with a fly cutter. I cut the smaller round holes with a uni-bit.

Do a full size layout before you start. Also, if you can, do the die grinder cuts from the back side.

Doing your own panel is a great project. Do lots of planning. Take your time.

 

[SteinAir]

Of course you can do it yourself (many of us have in the past, and many continue to do so in the future). It just takes some patience and a minimal set of tools. That said, you can easily farm it out - for example, we cut dozens of panels per month for folks, and depending on how much "work" you need (if you need a layout designed, or CAD work or whatever), the price can be a couple hundred bucks or so to have your panel cut. We keep the Vans blanks in stock to save you on shipping us a new one as well (or you can ship us yours or trade us later).

There are also other shops who do that as well for around the same money, and if you are near a large metropolitan area it's likely that there would be some local companies that can do it for you as well.

Just make sure with the deeper instruments (like the D10A) that you don't end up interfering with the gear leg brace behind the panel (if you have a Taildragger), and a few other things as well.

Hope that helps!

Just my biased 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein

 

[agirard7a]

Panel

Hi Wing nut. Building a panel is fun. I used a metal scribe
To mark the lines. Cut the square holes with a metal blade in a jig
saw. Drill the corners first with a #30 bit. Clean up the cut with a file.
Round holes, I used a fly cutter in a drill press with the panel well secured.
Step drill for the switch holes. Paint: scotch brite etch, clean, prime , paint or powder coat.

 

[Mike S]

Go for it. It is not that hard, buy some poster board and draw it out, cut out and see how all fits before you make too many alum chips.

I used a variety of tools, cutoff wheel in a die grinder, band saw, coping saw, various size drills, nibbler, and remember a unibit is your friend, not only use for indicator light holes, headset jack holes, and switch holes, but good to make the opening to fit the jigsaw blade into, or a coping saw blade too.

I always drill a hole in each corner of a square/rectangular opening, then cut the sides between the holes. I use a length of masking tape to make a guide line, cut a little inside the line and file to finish size.

The coping saw is great for small square/rectangular openings.

Stay away from an air powered nibbler unless you have a very steady hand.

It wont be long until you get all the holes in, then you get to mount all the goodies, and have something like this........................

Which of course leads you into the next step.............

 

[jimbo]

I looked around locally near my rural area and found a machine shop that does water jetting. Just so happens that they had cut other panels for local folks so that reassured me. I provided a drawing that had the X Y coordinates for all cutouts and the sizes of the cutouts. They converted it to CAD, cut a trial out in cardboard, then after a few corrections, they cut the actual panel. All for about $100 (this was about 3 years ago). I was happy with the results.

So, look locally, you might be surprised.

Jim
RV9a
First flight 9/13

 

[SMRacer]

RV8 panel

"Rewarding" is code for "frustrating". Doesn't sound like you built your airplane. I didn't build mine either. I do lots of things, but when it came to cutting a panel for the update, I farmed it out. Have it powder coated.

Let Stein do it for you.

Jim
RV-4
N444JT

 

[Jesse]

I use a cheap CAD program, draw out the panel I am doing, then send it to a water jet or laser cutting shop. You can get overlays made, but lately I've been getting a trophy shop to make plaques that stick to the panel, which are much easier to change than a permanently-labeled panel.

 

[N941WR]

Just don't do what one guy I know did. He pulled the panel, cut out all the wires, and then called to ask me help him rebuild it.

He didn't bother labeling a single wire before he started snipping them.

I begged off and what he thought would be a weekend's worth of work took him close to two years to complete.

I strongly suggest you look at the panel page for your type of RV and get a feeling for what you want to do. IFR/VFR makes a bid difference, so take that into account. Once you have an idea of what you want to do, contact Stein and consult with them. Once you know what you want, have them cut the panel and wire it, if you can afford it.

 

[Snowflake]

Rather than go buy a second panel from Van's to "experiment" with, go to a local plastics shop and have them cut a 3/16" or 1/4" thick piece of clear lexan or polycarbonate for you to match the shape of Vans' panel. Have them add 2" to the bottom so you can screw that edge to a couple of 2x4's (so it will stand on its own).

Do your practise layout on the lexan, mount everything up (you'll need longer screws for the thicker lexan), and while you're doing it you can see through from front to back and see where things line up, interfere, etc.

Once your planning is all done, you can take everything off the lexan part, and use it as a template to mark the metal one. Or measure from it to make a new CAD file and have the Van's part laser- or water-jet cut.

 

[crabandy]

When cutting square holes in my panel or squaring up an edge I clamped a scrap piece of aluminum angle along my cut line as a guide. I used a unibit to drill as big a hole as possible in the corner, a die grinder to cut along the line and guide angle and a file smoothed out the hole very nicely next to the angle.
I also wanted my panel slightly larger than Van's and used the original on a template and bought some extra .063 to make my own.
I would've saved a ton of time having Stein do it for me, but I didn't really know how I wanted to layout my panel. The process of building it made everything kind of fall into place for me.

 

[humptybump]

"Rewarding" is code for "frustrating". Doesn't sound like you built your airplane.

I didn't build my airplane but I've built two complete panels for it - a glass VFR panel and then a glass IFR panel. Both were great projects.

Of course, building a panel for a flying airplane often slips into "scope creep" - deciding to do related projects and upgrades at the same time.

"Rewarding" doesn't have to be "frustrating".