1:1 KG13 grip\control stick

[Siddley]

This project is for flight sim use, to go in a simpit loosely based on an FW190

One of the rules I have set myself is that I can't buy anything, but have to use materials I have lying around the workshop. This has already led to a few compromises, like the thickness of the trigger housing being overscale because I don't trust the strength of the MDF I used in thin sections.

Anyway, after a couple of hours work with milling machine, belt sander, Dremel, files and sandpaper we have a roughly shaped grip.
The screw holes are going to be filled, I just used those to hold the two halves together while I did some of the shaping. It's a single piece now, glued together. There is a channel inside for the wiring of course.

I don't know how I'm going to recreate the diamond pattern textured finish, I'll worry about that later.

 

[SANCER]

It sees an original work, with due reference information images can be a very interesting piece.

I am attentive of your progress.

Suerte!

 

[Shinpachi]

Favorable philosophy and attempt, Siddley
Please let me look forward to its completion.

 

[T Bolt]

Great work! The diamond pattern is easy with a pistol grip checkering tool. Maybe you can borrow one somewhere.

 

[Siddley]

Thank you guys !

It's funny you mention the checkering tool T-Bolt, until fairly recently I was a professional gunsmith
But I didn't do stock work so I have no experience of checkering. I can make a checkering tool very easily, but I'm not confident of my ability to use it. I wonder if the MDF will accept checkering without tearing ? maybe it will, it machines very nicely.

I am making some more progress, I'll post pictures later. Hopefully this time I can find the camera instead of having to use the wife's mobile phone.
And I'll lose that awful tablecloth as a background, I hate that ugly thing

 

[fubar57]

Looking good Siddley, awaiting further photos. About the table cloth: never complain about your wife's choices, remember, you were one of them.

Geo

 

[Siddley]

Yes, never complain No matter how bad it is now it can always get worse...

Bit of a disaster here. I realised that I had bored the hole for the button assembly on the top of the grip at the wrong angle. It was a tricky job because according to the drawing it is offset in two planes from the nominal centreline. I had some fun setting that up on the milling machine.
When I tried to correct the angle the MDF split - " Oh dearie, dearie me " I said " what a flipping shame "
I was using a cutter which was never designed for wood, or whatever MDF is made out of and it grabbed the edge of the existing hole, tried to take a big bite and that caused the split.

Still, I managed to save things by injecting glue into the crack and clamping it until set.

I am starting to wonder about the accuracy of the drawing I am using. I have no idea of it's provenance and it's annotated in French rather than German. It doesn't really match up with pictures of the KG13 grip in some areas.

I am going to cheer myself up tomorrow by making the button for the top of the grip and the PTT button for the base. I shall be breaking another rule I had set which was " use of sparstoff is verboten " - meaning no use of engineering materials I find it difficult to source here in rural Spain. But actually that is pretty much everything, so what the flip, I'll use up my last offcut of duralumin bar.

 

[Siddley]

Well, life got in the way of machining - just for a change - but I finally finished the button for the cannon.
These pictures aren't very good I'm afraid. I am useless at photography.

The mechanism is a 'tactile' pushbutton switch I scrounged out of a broken DVD player, mounted on a piece of pcb cut into a circle. Then there is the housing, and the button itself, both turned from aluminium.
I don't know how much travel the original button had, but I'm willing to bet it was more than the 0.5mm provided by the tactile switch - still, what the heck.

I'll probably tackle the lower part of the grip next, wish me luck

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff. And Jan will probably take that table cloth off your hands - he was muttering something about wanting a new dress for his holidays ...
As for the 'checkered' grip, if you're unable to 'engrave' it for whatever reason, then you should be able to find what you need in a good haberdashery/textiles shop, if you know of one, or know someone who knows of one. Look for the PVC or vinyl type of material used to cover things such as aluminium camera and tool cases, which has a small, tight, textured dimple or checker pattern. I've seen it in silver, gold, black and other colours, and it should be a fairly simple exercise to cut to the required shape and profile, and glue around the grip.

 

[Geedee]

You know this will end up being a full scale 190 project don't you....it won't stop at the stick. Next will be the instrument panel glare shield.....then a few instruments....then the rudder pedals.....and while you're at it, might as well add a seat....
You've started down a very enjoyable slippery slope ! Welcome to the club

 

[Siddley]

I know it's a slippery slope, I'm just pretending to myself that I'll simply make the flight controls and then stop

Airframes - I'll look out for some of that stuff, thanks for the suggestion. The best I have come up with so far is fly screen material.

 

[Siddley]

No photo update, but I have become unhappy with the shape of the grip. Did you know that you can make filler by adding talcum powder to epoxy resin or fibreglass resin ?
Or I could just buy some Milliput - which is better in every way - but I'm on a budget of zero here remember...

 

[T Bolt]

Gary is right, I started out with one rate of climb indicator

 

[A4K]

Nice work so far Siddeley! Looking forward to your further progress.

 

[Siddley]

I hope to have an update soon. I have reworked the shape of the grip now and made another button to operate the cannon - the one in the drawing just doesn't match up with any of the photo's I have seen. I have found out you can buy repro KG13 pushbutton units - only 55 euros each

Tomorrows job is to hack the trigger out of a solid lump of aluminium, which should be a fun challenge. As far as I can work out the original triggers were steel and had a dull plated finish or black paint to protect them from corrosion. The only steel I have of the right size is 'sparstoff' because it's expensive high carbon tool steel, and it's tough to work anyway. I think I can replicate the plating by etching the aluminium to a dull finish.

When that is finished I'll do some photos. Thanks for the interest, it helps keep me motivated

 

[Siddley]

Here is the progress so far.
The trigger needs a lot more work, the finish on it is rough. I chose a piece of aluminium which we call 'mystery metal' in the machining trade as it's grade is unknown. Turns out that it's very soft and that means it's difficult to file to a good finish ( for reasons I won't bore you all to death about ) and I'm having to use abrasive paper to clean it up, which is slow.
I'm not going to try and replicate the original method of keeping the trigger in place against the firing button as I would have to cut away a lot of the MDF which the grip is made from and I'm paranoid about weakening it. Instead I'm going to use some tiny neodymium magnets.
Apologies for the lousy pictures

 

[SANCER]

Good work so far Siddley

Waiting for more pics

 

[A4K]

Yep, looks bloody good to me so far!

 

[Airframes]

I agree.

 

[Siddley]

Thanks !
While I'm waiting for some emery wheels for my Dremel I'm going to do the next logical job, the third button and it's housing. This is going to be difficult, I can't think of an easy way to make the sheet metal housing. Even if I had a press it wouldn't be easy to make the tooling.
I need a plan B

This is a picture ( not mine, fair useage intended ) to show what I am up against :-