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Cutting instrument panel

K

Karee Brinlee

Active Member
Hey guys,
It is time to start on the panel.
What are most doing to cut the panel? I have two cuts I need done now then as I add more instruments over the winter will have more cuts made. I am not installing the panel at this time.

It would be nice to go with a carbon fiber panel but have not looked into that yet. Sure would save on the weight..

Also, as far as color for the panel I was told to go grey because it is a good color for lighting and glare issues.
Thoughts?

Karee

RV-7 flying within a year...
 
Cutting

Karee Brinlee said:
Hey guys,
It is time to start on the panel.
What are most doing to cut the panel? I have two cuts I need done now then as I add more instruments over the winter will have more cuts made. I am not installing the panel at this time.

It would be nice to go with a carbon fiber panel but have not looked into that yet. Sure would save on the weight..

Also, as far as color for the panel I was told to go grey because it is a good color for lighting and glare issues.
Thoughts?

Karee

RV-7 flying within a year...
Click to expand...

This worked well for me.
It's A Wrap
As far as cutting, standard tools work just fine, water jet works well but you need a CAD file.
 
Grey is a good colour.
Plan your panel completely before making cuts. Traditional tools work well, and so does water.
Carbon Fibre is nice, but how much weight would it save?
Cheers
Mike
 
I have a symmetrical Aerosport Power Carbon panel that I'm not going to use. Shoot me a pm if youre interested. FYI- they aren't cheap.
 
I like a builder who doesn’t straight out post “what company should I use to cut my panel?” !

Cutting a panel for round or square (or both) and drilling holes for switches really is pretty simple stuff if you’re building an entire airplane already. If you are doing round holes for steam gauges, the instrument hole punch is the way to go - you can generally borrow one locally from an EAA chapter, or post here too see who has one within driving range of your location.

I personally like Rustoleum’s “Dark Machinery Gray” for panels - nice contrast with EFIS’s and gauges, and white lettering stands out well for labels. I use “Light machinery gray” for the rest of the cockpit just to give things a two-tone look….

Paul
 
Ironflight said:
I like a builder who doesn’t straight out post “what company should I use to cut my panel?” !

Cutting a panel for round or square (or both) and drilling holes for switches really is pretty simple stuff if you’re building an entire airplane already. If you are doing round holes for steam gauges, the instrument hole punch is the way to go - you can generally borrow one locally from an EAA chapter, or post here too see who has one within driving range of your location.

I personally like Rustoleum’s “Dark Machinery Gray” for panels - nice contrast with EFIS’s and gauges, and white lettering stands out well for labels. I use “Light machinery gray” for the rest of the cockpit just to give things a two-tone look….

Paul
Click to expand...

Hey Paul
I was planning on cutting it myself. Pretty simple really and I do not have to take it somewhere to be done. Then, a friend was saying I should have it machine cut. The cut outs do not show anyway so I don't really see why I can not do it at home. And yes, I could get with my friends in Tulsa OK and borrow anything I need. Thanks for the reply... KB
 
Cutting the panel by hand was one of the easiest tasks on my build. Equally important to color, is finish. I painted my own panel, dark grey, almost black, with an added flattening agent. Most two part paint systems will naturally be high gloss if you don’t add the flattening agent.
 
Drawing

The driving reason for my choice to work from CAD to Adobe Illustrator was repeatedly. Once you have a drawing, repeats are simple. Stuff can be rearranged all you want. The final is printed black line on white vinyl. Find a printer willing to print on scrap and it's really cheap. The black line is just for cutting so scrap vinyl works just fine.
Apply it aligned to the screw holes. Cut along the dotted lines. I added crosshairs for holes so they end up exactly in the right place.
The finished drawing can be printed on any color of 3M 180 vinyl if the printer has the right equipment.
The really cool part is the drawings are aligned to existing landmarks (screw holes) so you just apply it and it's done. Reitterations align perfectly.
Of course paint and labels are fine too.

Oh, if you're working on a 7 slider, my drawings are a perfect match. It may work on a tipper if the panel is the same as far as screw hole locations.
Happy to share. All you have to do is move stuff where you want it.
 
Ironflight said:
Cutting a panel for round or square (or both) and drilling holes for switches really is pretty simple stuff if you’re building an entire airplane already. If you are doing round holes for steam gauges, the instrument hole punch is the way to go - you can generally borrow one locally from an EAA chapter, or post here too see who has one within driving range of your location.
Click to expand...

This----

If you have any concerns, try a practice piece on some scrap.
 

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Karee, as I mentioned in our pm conversation. if you ultimately decide to go with a Vans panel, there's no reason you can't get a really nice result by cutting it yourself.

I cut the big holes in mine by the tried and true method of drilling about a million holes and then connecting the dots with an abrasive cut of wheel. I also built some simple jigs to pilot drill things like switch and breaker holes so they would be symmetrical.

The anti-rotation washers for breakers and toggles are on the back (forward?) side of the panel for a nice clean look

Came out pretty good, but it took a long time. The finish is just gray primer with a couple of coats of rustoleum satin clear on top.
 

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Desert Rat said:
Karee, as I mentioned in our pm conversation. if you ultimately decide to go with a Vans panel, there's no reason you can't get a really nice result by cutting it yourself.

I cut the big holes in mine by the tried and true method of drilling about a million holes and then connecting the dots with an abrasive cut of wheel. I also built some simple jigs to pilot drill things like switch and breaker holes so they would be symmetrical.

The anti-rotation washers for breakers and toggles are on the back (forward?) side of the panel for a nice clean look

Came out pretty good, but it took a long time. The finish is just gray primer with a couple of coats of rustoleum satin clear on top.
Click to expand...

OMG I want that panel.... beautiful ...wow!
 
Thanks guys

Great responses guys. Thank you so much. I am so excited to start the panel process.
I think I will just cut it myself with the help of my BF of course. We have an automotive repair facility so he is a handy guy...LOL.. and a pain in the you know what..... but I love him.

I wish I had all the goodies to go in but trying to buy as I go without borrowing money. Its tempting to just pull out that credit card though and get an early Christmas present.... but alas, I shall use some common sense, something I lack at times.
KB
RV7 close to flying....
 
Cut out pieces of stiff cardboard the size of the items that you want to have in the panel and lay them out. Juggle them around till you get the layout you want. If you can try to get things centered then measure and lay it out. Sit back and enjoy a coffee or other beverage look at it again have another beverage then cut it out if you are happy with the design.
 
Thanks for the kind words.

Here are a few things to think about as you go through the process;

If you set up an account at hangarflying.com they have templates that allow you to drag and drop pretty much all the common boxes and trinkets onto a panel template. It's was a tremendous help during the planning phase.

If you're going with Garmin stuff, one of their web pages has full size color pdfs of all their boxes you can print out and tape to the panel.

Regarding finances, the single most expensive thing in my panel is the IFR navigator. I budgeted early on so I could buy the entire ship set at once, which was certainly more efficient, but it would be possible to creep up on a really nice panel by starting pretty basic and then adding as funds allow. For example, it's really nice to have a separate MFD, but in my case, there are only a couple of connectors on the MFD. It would be really easy to pre-wire for that, cover the hole in the panel with a blanking plate, save yourself 3 grand and then add it later.
 

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Ironflight said:
I personally like Rustoleum’s “Dark Machinery Gray” for panels - nice contrast with EFIS’s and gauges, and white lettering stands out well for labels. I use “Light machinery gray” for the rest of the cockpit just to give things a two-tone look….
Click to expand...

For our European friends:
Dark Grey : RAL 7036
Light Grey : RAL 7035
 
Conventional metal hole saws, hand held metal nibbler, drills, files etc an easy task. I made cardboards templates for all my Instruments and a mock up plywood panel full size. Many panels are an ergonomic disaster!
A light grey is best.��

955BE05C-8CE7-43EA-95E2-B7D3D8BDD86A.jpeg
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Click to expand...
 
A jigsaw with a metal cutting blade works well cutting today's rectangular holes in the panel. Drill holes in the 4 corners, then connect the holes using the jigsaw. Go slow or you'll overheat the blade. Also, use boelube.

I get a much more accurate cut that way than using a dremel or other rotary tool.
 
I did the same as Kyle with a jig saw on several panels that I’ve done. I made the cuts on the back side of the panel with the surface entirely taped so I wouldn’t scratch things up. Cutting the holes and then final filing with a vixen file mostly was actually pretty easy. It took me longer to lay out the openings than doing the cuts.

Back side:
IMG_2290.jpg

Front side after paint (rattle can):
IMG_2289.jpg
 
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