Elvaron

Thanks again for the feedback! Looks like I'd end up with the same principle Gadroc uses, lasermax -> clear acrylic -> aluminium. I'm glad you pointed out the overbright E. So no LEDs directly behind engraved stuff :) Gadroc, if you end up getting a group order, count me in! I saw one offer for ~500$ for 5000 of them, so 50$ for 500 of them. Heck, I'd contribute 100$ if it helps getting us a group order together, but I really have no use for 1.000 of them. I guess I could plaster my entire apartment with them. Oh, the joys of an electricity bill :)

Sample for the acrylic glass arrived today, glad I got that :) 3mm is insanely thin if I imagine I have to fit an LED in there, but from a stability standpoint it's supreme. Interestingly, the surface feels almost exactly like the TM Hotas Warthog Throttle unit's surface, sans the matte finish. I think we have a winner with Plexiglas XT! I got a sample with 28% translucence. I'm using my external HDD's status light as an example, which itself is dimmed by an acyrlic sheet. I'm holding the printed version of the faceplate against it, printed on 190g paper. And I can read the text in an illuminated fashion. Awesome. I'll get the 78% light transmission version ( http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/DE/en/xt-allround-8ny276huqre/plexiglas-xt-allround-white-wn670-gt-jdfyq0xfl4a~p.html ) to maximize translucence, but staying with the white material. Saves me the trouble of painting it white first :) Any nays?

Aah, that's what the white paint is for. I was wondering how you would make the light bounce around. Thanks for the attachment, this has helped clear things up some more. Hmm... I wonder if a sheet of tinfoil or such between the lightplate and backplate wouldn't work equally as well? Should help reflect a maximum amount of light from the LEDs and be at least as cheap as a can of white paint. And you can pretty much cut it into any shape you need, without having to spraypaint around my apartment :D

Yea, that's what I'm thinking aswell. Have the engraving shop do the fonts and lines to the point where the faceplate is either fully ready or just needs the outer shape and holes done. Do the lightplate from clear acryl and the backplate from eloxed aluminium or such myself (my associate says the latter wouldn't be a problem to get), then just screw the three together and wire it up. I'll have to think about the lighting though. Any hints on that part? How does that part actually work? Looking at Mike's website he doesn't seem to seperate lightplate and faceplate, so I'm assuming I'll have to slightly carve into the clear acrylic aswell so some of the light gets redirected upwards? How do you judge how many LEDs you need?

I mean 50€ each ;) That's close to 2.000$ for all the panels... Basically, I'd be getting them all from the same engraving shop then, just only 1-2 at the beginning to experiment with it. If the results are satisfying, I order the others. Don't think they can turn down such an order?

Heh, good point. I am known to be clumsy at times. I'm just gonna have to start making a sample and see how it goes, learn from that. I made an inquiry to a laser engraving company for both the materials and the services, will see if my own time is more valuable than the extra money it would cost to just get the face plates laser engraved. I guess I wouldn't mind the cost as long as it's under 50€, won't be doing more than one at a time anyways. On top of which I'm gonna have to save up some cash on the upcoming salary for Deadman's knobs, just no way I'm going to reach his quality myself :)

Thanks for the feedback. So basically I'd have one metal backplate, one transparent lightplate and one translucent faceplate with a black surface? I'm worried that our machines cant do freeforms with only so little depth into the material, since the surface would be half a millimeter or so? I'd like to avoid having to pay for laser engraving. Next question is where to get translucent plastic with a black matte surface, in europe, at a reasonable price...

Good evening, I recently got into the hobby of pit building, and while I will eventually share my progress in this thread, first and foremost I have some questions, which I hope some can help me with? First of all, thanks to the people here who so readily share their stuff to make it easier for others! I wouldn't even attempt to try this if you guys didn't break open the door for me and others! I'm just getting started on the various panels, and my main concern is getting them done in proper quality, especially with the tools I have at the ready. An associate of mine has a metalworking company with CNC machines and such, where I can make the shapes and holes and whatnot, but he doesn't have the machinery for engraving and such. I'm also a programmer for a company that makes a specialized CAD software for it's parent company's profile processing machines (think window and door frames and such), which might mill small enough for the letters/lines. And I have another associate with a carpentry business who can make the cockpit's inner frames and whatnot, though that may be delayed due to apartment constraints :D I'm basing my design off ReactorOne's amazing template. He has 3 layers for each panel, 1 faceplate that I'd be making out of metal I assume. Another layer with the same outer shape as the faceplate, I'm assuming this one would be the light plate? And a third one I would make out of metal again to hold the three together and mount the various switches and whatnot on. Please correct me if I'm wrong already. Now to my current questions: - How thick should each layer generally be? - Based on Mike's website (I haven't gotten his book Building Recreational Flight Simulators yet, though I plan on getting it soon - just wish there were an ebook version), the engraving seems to go through the front plate into the light plate, I'm assuming so the lightplate has angled faces there that illuminate upward rather than just passing most of the light further sideways when light sources are mounted level with the lightplate? - Won't I need even further openings to put the LEDs into the lightplate and wire it up? I doubt that prodding each through next to a switch is the best solution here? - Any suggestions on how best to do the engraving in detail? Especially with letters there's the obvious problem that if these fully cut through the faceplate, floating parts would fall out (8,O,P,A,D,...). I need to use a temporary mounting block for the faceplate anyways so it can be strapped into my company's milling machine, should I just glue the light plate and the face plate together, screw them on a piece of wood and hope the glue holds the floating parts in place when the drill sets them free? - Assuming the middle layer of the sandwich is some transparent plastic while the faceplate and backplate are metal, won't I have to somehow hide the middle layer on the sides? Unless I make the light plate impractically thin, you'd see it from any angle other than looking straight at it, and I imagine it would even transport light outside? - As for materials, I found this as a translucent sheet: http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/DE/en/xt-allround-8ny276huqre/plexiglas-xt-allround-white-wn070-gt-cpy5buyyq79~p.html Living in germany, I have to find local variations of what people usually suggest. This any good? I'm fully aware that a lot of this could be avoided by using acrylic layers and more or less print the black parts onto the faceplate, but I don't have a laser engraving machine or any such. What I do have is metal processing machines, so might aswell use what I have access to, right? Well, I can use the machines on plastics or otherwise I couldn't make the faceplate, but if possible I'd prefer metal faceplate :) Note: Please be gentle with technical terms. Just because I know someone with a CNC machine doesn't mean I know the first thing about that kind of machinery. When in doubt, assume I know nothing whatsoever.