|
|
|
|
Marks Rans Courier Project
|
Date: 8-23-2008
|
Number of Hours: 6.00
|
Manual Reference:
|
Brief Description: fabricate panel #1
|
|
I have a friend,Steve, who ia an A&P/IA and who has his own machine shop. Today I went to his shop to cut out and form my instrument panel. Steve has special cutters that cleanly punch out holes for standard-sized instruments. I used "Dykem Steel Blue" compound to coat the face of the aluminum sheet to be used for the panel. Dykem is a dark blue that is easy scratched with caliper points, compass or divider points or an awl to markout metal for drilling or cutting.
I carefully laid out the panel for all of the instruments, gauges, avionics, switches, indicators, cables etc, then predrilled all of the locations with pilot holes. Next I drilled all the small holes to size. We then cut the holes for the large and small instrument/gauges. All of the work went according to plan, and at the end of the day the panel blank looked great and ready for additon of the instruments and installation.
Next I started to itest fit the various gauges prior to drilling the holes for the mounting screws. Problem. All of the engine instuments supplied by RANS are non-standard size, and were too small for the holes I had cut. This was a major "oh S**T" moment. A full-days work all for naught, along with a ruined instrument panel blank.,
Note to other builders: Measure all of your gauges carefully prior to drilling and cutting out your panel holes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.
|
