HOW TO BUILD A320 3D FOOT REST AND PULL OUT TRAY

By Rick Senecal

This tutorial will show you how to construct a realistic looking 3 dimensional foot rest and pull out tray as used on the Airbus 320. It requires the use of a table saw or radial arm saw, a band saw or jig saw and a router and router table. 

Materials:
1/8 inch MDF or plywood 
3/8”dowel rod 
4 ft.White pine 2 X 4 
Wood Glue 
Wood Screws 
Double stick tape
Paint.

The Actual Aircraft Shelf Unit

I caution you up front that I built this project using estimated, not actual measurements from real aircraft photos taken from various sources. All images were scaled to work with my existing FDS 3D MIPS.

Step 1: Place LH and RH Main Instrument Panels (MIP's) over a piece of 1/8" MDF and trace their exact shapes onto the piece. The height of each MDF panel will be whatever the distance is from the bottom of the MIP to the bottom edge of the shelf your monitor sits on. For my project, this dimension was 3 ¾ ". The length was 21". Do this for both LH and RH as they will be slightly different and will fit only on their appropriate side. Cut the pieces with a band saw or jigsaw.

 

SIMULATED HINGE

Step 2: I simulated the tray hinge using two strips of 1/8" MDF. I ripped them to ½" in width. I cut the longer strip approximately 15 ½" in length or slightly smaller than the width of the MDF panel they will sit on top of. The smaller strip is approximately 15" long. I notched each end for the dowel rod to rest in. Two small pieces of MDF make up the rest of the hinge. I rounded the edges of the trim strips to better show the seam between the two pieces when butted together.

DOWEL ROD AND HINGE STRIPS GLUED DOWN

Step 3: The dowel rods have a groove cut around the center of each. I did this by turning them in my fingers up against a running band saw blade. BE CAREFUL! Another safer method might be to chuck up the dowel stock in a drill press and cut a groove in it with a hack saw blade while it is turning. I sanded a flat bottom on the dowel rod to provide a good surface area for gluing. Cut the length of each dowel rod to the edge of the strips. All pieces are then glued to the top portion of the MDF Panel as shown.

 

VIEW OF ANGLE CUTS

Step 4: To construct the center block piece and each foot rest, you will need to rip a piece of 2 X 4. The picture above shows the approximate angles I set on the saw blade. The center block is cut 45 degrees on both sides. I left the wood its original thickness and cut the angles so that the block fits fully onto the MDF panel between the bottom of the panel and the hinge. You may have to experiment with this dimension depending what the overall height of your MDF panel is. Rip a piece long enough to make two pieces. My center blocks are 6" long. The foot rests are cut in the same manner except for the angles used on the cut. I merely guessed at the angle by looking at original photos. Close is good enough in this case. My angle cuts are 9 and 45 degrees. Length is 5 ½".

GROOVES CUT IN CENTER BLOCK

I then drew a line 1" from each edge of the block on all 3 sides. I used this line as a reference for cutting two grooves into the block. Again, I used a band saw to do this. A hack saw or coping saw would work as well.

RECESS CUT INTO FOOT REST

STEP 5: The foot rests (4 each) should already be ripped using the length and angles described in Step 4. To cut out the 1/8" recess shown in the picture requires the use of a router and router table. I used a hinge mortising bit to cut it with. This process could also be done using a sharp chisel and a whole lot of luck. This recessed area is where the rubber step material will be glued in to later. It is necessary to set up stop blocks on your router table in order to create and not cut into the 1/4" edge around the foot rests. I made my foot rests slightly smaller in height than the center block. It sits about ¼" below the hinge and is flush with the bottom of the MDF panel.

GLUED AND PAINTED ASSEMBLY

STEP 6: Sand smooth your three pieces and glue them to the MDF panel as shown. After the glue dried, I drilled and inserted 2 screws into each of the 3 blocks for better holding power.

CUTTING RUBBER WITH PAPER CUTTER

STEP 7: The last thing to do is cut and glue the rubber foot strips into the recessed area that was cut out previously with the router. The accuracy of my router cutting was not exact, so I cut each piece of tread material individually to fit each foot rest. I used a paper cutter to cut the material. It gives a nice clean straight cut. I used a good contact cement to glue the rubber strips in place.

FRUIT OF MY LABOR

FINAL STEP: I mounted each of the 3D assemblies onto the MIP using double stick tape. I chose not to use screws because I simply did not want them to show. I also placed a strip of thin poster board material up under the MIP against the monitor glass to shield out the monitor light that leaks out through the seam between the tray hinge and the MIP. I found this project to be relatively easy to do. Having all of the necessary wood working tools sure helped. Like anything else, the longer you take to do something the better the quality of the end product. If you have questions please feel free to E-Mail me at Ricktana@charter.net. Good luck and happy building!