Making a cockpit frame with MDF

[Hypnorm]

Sooooo .....

It has been a few weeks and I've had some problems with the industrial laser cutter that i have access to - all sorted now.

But I have managed to cut almost all of the pieces and have started to put it together.

It's HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2.7m wide x 2.4m long x 2.1m high. I didn't really think about how big it would be. I have just enough space for it without tearing down my existing set up.

So far it is fitting together well. More pics to follow


Floor Plates


MIP carcasses in place


From the front


Rear Frame goes up


From the back (or should that be the front?)


Starting the Glareshield

So far so good ... It is all push fit so far. It's square and true and all the cutouts seem to be in the right place. When I'm happy, I'll PVA all the joints.

The GluLam frame elements are very strong and I'm happy with them too. I'm interested in how the rest of the frame elements fit together and how strong it will be. More pictures then.

H

[cptburgos]

Great work indeed.

I'll be starting this project too.

Thanks.

[Hypnorm]

Time for a major update.
I have now built the entire frame (except for one seat box) and I'm over the moon with how it looks and performs. The only compromise I have made is to fudge a couple of side supports as window frames in order to support the overhead - yes that joint is still the weakest part of the frame. The window frames aren't quite in the correct place, but I can live with it The frame easily holds a 30kg weight overhead with a little strain, but I don't know if I would push it much more than that


All up it was 8 sheets of 2400 x 1200 9mm MDF for the cockpit and 6 sheets of 1200 x 900 6mm MDF for the floor ... about AU$300 all up plus about AU$100 worth of laser time. I am really happy with it.

I will finish the construction guide and get the plans into the file library in the next few days. Meanwhile here are some pics ...

Nose view


FO Side view


MIP view


Side Bracing


Top ring

Now I just need to paint it, skin it, trim it, transfer all my screens, computers, arduinos, interfaces, switches, buttons ............

[Hypnorm]

Hi again,
I have finally finished the sketchup files for the complete cockpit. The ZIP archive is currently in the moderation queue. It will appear as a link to a file on dropbox. For some reason, I couldn't upload the zip file to the file library - the error message was the file was too large, but it is only about 11Mb.

This ZIP archive contains Sketchup files for a complete, full-size A320 cockpit made from 9mm MDF. The archive includes sketchup files for the floor, MIP, Glareshield, seat boxes, sidestick boxes, and a frame structure for supporting the overhead.
It expands to 30 Sketchup files (easily exported to DXF) for laser cutting and a comprehensive instruction document.
It was designed to suit my own particular hardware, seats, etc, but is a very close approximation of the real thing in terms of dimensions.
Enjoy,
H

[iwik]

Thanks for the great effort and much appreciated.
Regards
Les