After procrastinating for the last 2 months, I’ve finally finished my next instrument panel.
It’s for a Schemmp-Hirth Ventus 2b glider: 15M wingspan with a glider ratio of about 46:1.
The first step was to fill all the holes in the panel (it had been set up for another set of instruments), true up the surfaces and figure out how to cut at two different Z zero settings. Also it was a interesting to set up a spoil surface that would let me secure everything as the big holes were cut. Also the two surfaces were not parallel planes!
In this case I made 4 different g-code files to cut the panel:
Cut the lower portion of the panel, one 57mm hole and four 4mm holes.
Cut the four mounting holes, two on the top and two just before the step-down to the lower portion.
Cut all the small holes in the top portion.
Cut the big holes.
This whole process took me about 5 hours (cutting time was only about 12 minutes). I had drawn some reference lines on the blank panel and double and triple checked that the stored 0,0 point was correct for the reference lines. I made sure to “air cut” everything before homing the Z and turning on the router.
I’m very happy there were no “Oops” as I didn’t want to fill more holes and try again.
Yes, the panel is molded from fiberglass. This particular one was an aftermarket (not quite an exact copy) one that a friend donated to this particular rebuild project. As I mentioned I needed to patch it up a bit before I could start the routing.
As a side note, I used LibreCAD to make the DXF file. It works pretty well for that application, but it still takes me too long to get re-familiarized with the commands. I just don’t use it enough.
Hi There Mike
would it fit an older Ventus A cabin? what kind of cover shield would fit over it?
Do you sell those panels?
I have an old modified Ventus A and it has the Pik-20 style middle post style instrument panel which I don’t like
bill
my email is kalapos (at) hotmail.com
