Well, the "gauges this weekend" turned into two months!!!!
But here we go:
The Undercarriage Indicator is now finished thanks to Chris and his laser cutter and some heavy duty scratch building to finish it off. It is made of several layers of 3mm acrylic each with a different detail etched into it…LED holder, legend, darkening panel, reflectors, mounting panel, top panel with "Chassis" and spacers.
The legend is engraved into the front face of two clear pieces, painted black before engraving and separated by a painted edge to prevent light bleed. A clear panel was then placed over this to give depth and make the writing "just" visible when not lit. (as per original).
The Night Shade holder is made from pine rod, with laser cut frames and end caps from power point screw cover tabs. I elected not to try to engrave the "For night use" label into this or stick one on the outside…I may reconsider.
The clip for the nighthshade (bottom) was made out of a 3mm rivet with the rod removed and edges ground to a "nut" look and the case thumbscrew (centre) was made out of "bits" from old instruments
The real thing.
Oil Pressure Gauge
Again, laser cut in layers to allow a 3d effect. The hard part was putting this one together. The inside needed to be curved as it is a "drum" type instrument. The needle is scratch built from aluminium and fits into a slot lasered in the back plate.
The scale is laserlite which had to be bent onto the curved interior and stuck in place with no creases…not fun. The needle floats above this by 1/2mm and then a sheet of clear had to be heated and bent to the curve (over a stainless steel coffee plunger!!), then mounted and glued keeping it above the needle and fitting in below either end of the face cut out. Again, a slow careful job and I had three spare "windows". Luckily I managed to nail it with the first one.
This one is non functioning due to the "drum" arrangement being impractical for the sim cards. Above it on the panel will be a dual needle Fuel and Oil pressure gauge.
Finished product:
Real Gauge
Two that were always going to be difficult to manufacture but the original U/C indicators are about A$2500 and the original Oil Pressures are radioactive.
The third is completely scratch built (I thought Chris and his laser had already performed "above and beyond") from an old helicopter oil pressure gauge. It is the Ammetre and came up quite nicely.
The face is actually a picture, photo-shopped to remove the needle then printed out on paper AND a reverse image on transperancy. These two were stuck together with clear glue and then fitted to the old face. This worked really well and makes it look much less like a picture and much more like a real face. I'm going to use it for all the gauges I scratch build in the future.
The original OP gauge had a round face, which the ammeter doesn't, so I cut a front plate out of 1mm aluminium and shaped it to fit into the round raised bezel and cover the bottom third to match the original as closely as possible. The needle was fabricated from some plastic screw packet offcuts and a spacer put in to mount it on so it "is" 3d as well. The actual inside workings visible under the base of the needle came out particularly well but are just part of the picture.
Finished product.
Original instrument (but with needle removed from photo)
I'm not unhappy with the final results and it keeps me busy until I can finish cutting the mount holes for these and the indicator lights and get the damned panel painted and assembled!
Darryl