CNC update.

An update about the CNC milling machine. Assembled the parts I have yet to receive. Still waiting for the rest from China. I am very pleased with the design so far. Feels stable and the IO cards are in place with the socket for the transformer.
The size of the bed is 300mm x 600mm. The bottom plate will be made out of plywood 12mm thick. Squeegee protection on the sides will be detachable, so it is possible to cut slightly larger items in sections.
Looking forward to the day I can show a video on the machine in action.

It feels like I’m all over the place with my projects, but waiting times that this hobby entails makes it almost impossible to start at one end and end at the other. Multiple projects are the progress I will keep. The upgrade of the 3D printer is almost done and then I will continue to print the parts to the gear leaver handle.

One thing after another…

I have had my 3D printer for just over a year now, and it has worked absolutely superbly. Until a few weeks ago. It started crashing into the bed and it turned out it was a circuit board that had broken. Instead of buying new I upgraded to my Wanhao Duplicator 9 to the MKII kit and Antclabs BL Touch sensor which includes a new circuit board. Since then, the printer has been struggling with stuck plastic. Researched the web and instead of troubleshooting and fixing I also took the opportunity here to upgrade the machine with Bondtech extruder but when I removed the print head I simultaneously broke the hotend, so now I sit again waiting on the mailman for a new swiss hotend.

Furthermore, I will soon start renovating the room which will be the dedicated simulator room and the remaining areas will be used as workshop, with 3D printer, CNC milling machine and soldering station. At present, we are still cleaning out all the old crap we have accumulated over the years.

For MIP I have cut out the backplate, and the frame that will hold the construction together is assembled. While I wait for the new hotend I will continue with the CAD drawing and clean in the upcoming simulator room.

Progress is sloooooow…

Progress is slow but it’s just a matter of getting used to it, this hobby is slow. The job of 3D printing and CAD the MIP continues. The printer is currently working on a new gear leaver handle and mechanism. The body itself is just printed, the tube, the wheel and the trigger will be sanded, spray filled and painted in several steps. More on that when i can take pictures to show.

The CAD drawing is largely measured, adjustments are made to ensure that everything really fits. The space between the gear leaver, the standby instruments and the upper eicas screen is really tight and the range of small screens of 4:3 size is really limited. But I’m chasing on.

In the meantime, I intend to enlighten other cockpit builders, who have helped me in some way (probably without even knowing about it). The first video I ever saw on a homemade simulator was a video I came across on YouTube totally random.

Neale Hargreaves a British guy who has built a full mock-up Boeing 737-800NG branded as KLM. In his first video, he shows his entire sim that he built out in a shed. I watched the video countless times to the extent that my wife responded in the style of “if he can do one, you can too!” and that was where the idea of my own cockpit building started.

Back to the drawing board

Now 2mm aluminum sheet has been purchased. Currently sits with Fusion360 and measures in so everything fits. I am completely novice in Fusion but teach me slowly but surely.

Furthermore, I have previously made a gear leaver of plumbing parts and springs. The result was not to my satisfaction, so I turned to the 3D printer and printed out a gear leaver. The measurements were bad and overall the feeling was not right. So now I give Karl’s design a chance and hope for better results than before.

Link to 737DIYSIM gear lever on Thingiverse.

I will also fill the space in front of the screens with glass or clear plastic. The holes in the MIP backplate surrounding the screens are made slightly larger to fit the glass. The joint is covered with MIP screen frames.