Spitfire IX Project

[BHawthorne]

Any possability of you making and releasing CAD files for the build? Looks great.

[Tony Hill]

Any possability of you making and releasing CAD files for the build? Looks great.

What is this "AUTO CAD" of which you speak?



Sorry mate, strictly a pen, paper, cardboard cutout sort of a guy. I would not have the first clue of how to create a CAD drawing. The shapes, apart from the outside curves, are all done by eye, carpenter's pencil and a lot of "spit, wipe off, redraw". Although I have very little ability to actually work with wood, I have always been able to look at a pile of it and form a good picture in my head of how it will look made up. The real challenge to then make my limited ability approximate what I saw in my head.

I would be happy to give someone the information and measurements to put a drawing together..if that is enough? Photo's of bits with some measurements drawn on in MS "Paint"? Copies of GA drawings etc?

Let me know if thta would help.


Gwyn,

Legend!! I'll look forward to it. It is a pitty the aerobat is gone, otherwise I would quite happily torture you both for hours


Darryl

[Tony Hill]

Some small progress, I still need to take pictures of the starboard upper cockpit wall taking shape.






AND a sneak preview of the throttle...I hope Gwyn doesn't mind but it just looks SO good I couldn't keep it to myself....




.

[Crescent]

Oooohhh....cool. Where and how is the pot going to be attached to the throttle? Just out of curiosity cause I had some serious problems figuring out my own.

[warvet]

Tony just out of curiousity how in the world do those gunsight thingys work that are shown the pic the 3 silver balls that look 1/2 black 1/2 silver.

Tim
A10 Thunderbolt II

[Tony Hill]

Cresent,

Not quite sure where the pot will go but Gwyn tells me it will be on the quadrant somewhere. The mixture and prop pitch are going to go on rods, forward through the instrument panel frame running to linear pots.




Tim,

The bulbs work by shading all the light forward and up through the silver portion and onto the reflector glass. Simple and effective. I am still considering whether to use the 12 volts and relays for the lights or replace the whole lot with LEDs driven directly by the Phidgets card.




I was hoping to have photos of the upper cockpit structure but have found that although I worked off the real plans, they are wrong for the placement of the ribs above datum in the cockpit area!! Can't believe it but several dozen photos prove it. I am not pleased!! When the damage is repaired (and when I sober up and when I stop strangling small animals!) I will rip it all off and start again. It's days like this I really wish I had listened to what my mother told me when i was a child.....




Darryl

[Tony Hill]

Ok, a little later than I'd hoped but here goes....


The upper starboard structure (there is a u shaped hood slide that goes on top of the aft section that is still under construction)

This has been rebuilt to match up with the actual plans for the door on the port side...a whole drama there with unreliable GA drawings.







The instrument panel was going to be plasma cut but I thought I would have a go first..if I $&^(&*^ it I can always get it plasma cut later...






The holes were cut by scribing the correct size circle with a compass, "gang drilling" to within 1 mm of the circle (there is never a gang drilling assembly around when you need one, so I had to do that the old fashioned way with a compass, a centre punch and a single drill bit!) , cutting out with a jigsaw and then hand finishing until the gauge surround fit snuggly into the holes. This had to be done slowly and carefully because the gauges actually poke through the holes from the back...so nothing covers any mistakes.

It is not perfect but it is close enough....only 10 instruments, two indicators, three switches, one flap valve, one oxy regulator hole and one gunsight shade slit to go....total time on the BFP and cutting the IP blank, so far, six hours!

And the wood BFP fitted with the instruments.





More soon hopefully


Darryl

[makoy]

Hi Darryl,

Nice to see some project not common here and yours looks very interesting.
You have make very good work there.
Cool

[Anderson/SBSP]

Wonderfull!!!

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Guys,

I should have some more progress to show by the end of the week,



Darryl