Glare top >> how do I make it ?

[Guest PoRrEkE]

http://users.skynet.be/porreke/Glaretop.jpgThis is a 3D render of the top plate which I will need to put on top of my glare. As you can see quite a weird shape and I have no idea how to make this.I hope you folks see the actual picture cuz I seem to have some problems here. I see different pages on my website each time I refresh it and those pages aren't mine. If I load this image e.g. I get a banner which isn't mine.Anyone got an idea what might be going wrong here? Other folks seem to see the correct things.

[Guest MikePowell]

One approach is to make a form that you can fiber glass over, then remove. There are several types of urethane foam used for this purpose. I have used "dry floral foam" with fiber glass filled polyester resin successfully. Dry floral foam is a crumbly urethane foam used to make floral arrangements of silk flowers. It is very easy to shape with a knife and sandpaper, and much cheaper/more readily available than the urethane foams made specifically for modelling. One of the issues with using any kind of plastic foam is making sure the resin does not dissolve it. Another approach is to form the basic glare shield shape from wire mesh or screen. You can fiber glass over this or use multiple layers of paper and varnish. This covers both sides of the mesh/screen which then lends strength to the finished item.Then there's vacuum forming of heated plastic sheets...Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

[blave 0]

This is an excellent topic as I have been asking myself the same question. I have decided that this will be the "prototype" that I model my panel after (warning: this is a large presskit photo):http://www.thalesgroup.co.uk/Thales_Corpor...ry/x78429_9.jpgwhich as you can see has a similar top section. I have been wondering if there is a wood product that is pre-covered on one side with some sort of non-wood-looking plastic surface, that can still be precision cut and glued together to form such an irregular surface.Does such a product exist?Dave Blevins

[blave 0]

Sorry about my previous post. I did not mean to embed such a large image file in it.But - isn't it glorious? Check out the terrain display on the right hand PFD - I've never seen that before.It is an image of a prototype helicopter cockpit that the French mfr. Thales was apparently showing at an airshow recently... Other notable items are the joystick avionics controller on the LH side of the center console, and the trackball-like device on the RH side. I am thinking that I'll try to replicate the trackball thing in my home cockpit.The critical eye notes the lack of any autopilot control panel - if it has an FMC then it should have an autopilot. I would put that in the top-center area (as in airliners and some high-end GA airplanes) and relegate the standby instruments to another area.Just thinking out loud 8^) .Dave Blevins

[Guest PoRrEkE]

Yours is very easy to make with a 5mm mdf board which you have cut long parallel gaps in it from 4mm deep. Each gap comes 10mm after the oter. Or something close to that. The result is a panel which you can bend quite amazingly. Seen from your picture the bends are parallell to eachoter each time while if you look good at my picture it is not the case. That's why my glare top is different from most others and is so much more complex to make.Yours is same things as airbus or boeing.Check my picture again. The part where the glare panel is in the middle will go downwards if you move away from the pilot, while the part left and right from the glarepanel (more in front of the pilots) that is almost horizontal. Also it should have an oval gap in it so that pilots can hold theirselves while climbing into their seat so ideally that glaretop should be strong enough to host such an option.

[Guest MikePowell]

Dave,That's a pretty slick looking cockpit. No apology needed for the image.Melamine coated particle board is sold for shelving through Home Depot. It's all white though, and the coating is thin.For a one-off, assuming no oven for heating sheet plastic and no vacuum forming equipment, I would make a plug out of MDF and form smooth curves with Bondo. Use that to support a fiber glass layup. Trim the fiber glass to size and contact cement vinyl upholstery fabric to the top and wrapped around the edges.I think the person to ask about this is Ken Weiland of Daken-Skys.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

[tigert 0]

We did our glareshield from 2mm aluminium sheet which we bent to shape (easy to do) - then we had 10mm "camping mattress" type foam that has adhesive glue on one side - we stuck that over the aluminium. Then we had nice black nylon fabric (stuff we used for our side "doors" and to make the shade for the visual system, we had some left over) which we glued on top of that. I bet artificial leather might work just as well. I think you need to use sandpaper to roughen the side of the aluminium and use contact glue to make it stick - and then again, you screw it on the top of the panels anyway so just make the "flaps" of the fabric go under the panel edges on the underside so they dont peel off. We fixed it with screws through the top. It looks fabulous and feels very solid. The foam adds a nice cushioning feel so it's nice.The alu-sheet:http://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_5366.sized.jpgCutting the foam roughly to shape:http://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_5368.sized.jpgFoam on aluminium, starts to look like a glare a bit:http://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_5373.sized.jpgFinished glare:http://tigert.gimp.org/tigert-albums/simu_...e/aag.sized.jpghttp://aerodome.net/gallery-kuvat/album21/IMG_5795.sized.jpgI think it works great and looks good too.//Tuomas

[Guest PoRrEkE]

Here again >> nice sollution though still I believe it won't work for me.Take a piece of paper and try bending it like what I need. You will see that the entire thing will go weird.Unless I take a big plate that is too deep first, bend it and then cut out the shape so that the front is straight. Not sure if you folks get what I mean is the problem here :(If you would flatten out my shape you would see that the 2 bends closest to the middle of the plate are parallel and 90

[jmig 100]

Phillippi,Beg borrow or steal

[Guest Erups]

Long an' hard, but should be one of the best.Get hold of a piece of wood of the maximum dimensions of the glare top (by maximum dimensions i mean that the height is the maximum height of all the glare top).Then with a sander or any kind of sanding machine or the likes make your shape.After you've done this, cover it all up with plastic tape.Then use long dry epoxy resin (takes about 24h to dry depending on humidity and temperature, and is sold in two components) and "glass wool" sorry but i do not remember the english name right now.You will end up with custom made fiberglass.I used this technique to make the hull of a model sail boat.There are two kinds of "glass wool" and many "dimensions":by kind i mean straight and random.don't know the exact english names, but the straight type has the fibers angled at 90

[tigert 0]

>Then use long dry epoxy resin (takes about 24h to dry>depending on humidity and temperature, and is sold in two>components) and "glass wool" sorry but i do not remember the>english name right now.>You will end up with custom made fiberglass.If you go this route, you need *ventilation* - Do not do this at home. Seriously. Epoxy resin smells *evil and nasty* and you'll feel really sick if you breathe the fumes, plus it is bad for health too.What if you took the camping mattress foam, bend it to the correct shape and trim to the size on top of the glare? Then you get the correct shape for the aluminium too? Just have the frontside of the foam be a bit longer towards you than the real glare, so you can bend the "flap" over the edge to make a nice round edge to the finished glare.//Tuomas