11 January 2016

Panel. Panel cut.

My panel has been cut.  I had it done at a local plastics shop with a CNC milling machine.  Total cost was $174.99.  It came out looking very clean.


However, true to form, I made a catastrophic error:  I used diameter for radius on the GRT mounting holes, so I get to have another panel cut.  I knew I would make two!  This at least lets me try my layout to see how I like it.  It also lets me reduce the thickness of the panel from 1/8" to 0.090"-ish so there are no clearance issues with the C-01404 Canopy Flange.

The shop used a 1/8" end mill, leaving 1/16" corners which turns out isn't tight enough for the parts with hard corners (Otto rocker switches, Hobbs, etc.).  I'll try filing the corners on this panel to see how practical it is to tighten them up.

Update 14-Apr-16:   I had my second, redesigned panel cut (not shown) at a waterjet shop for $242.75.  Though the edges weren't as clean and the corners were all overshot by about 1/32", I was able to clean it up well enough.  I was curious what waterjet would look like and this shop was able to do the work in a day, whereas the CNC shop took more than a month.  If I were to make another panel, I would stick with CNC milling.  Anyway, now the panel looks like the following.




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