Things you will need:
- Old Monitor (flatscreen will work better)
- Acrylic (Plexi-glass) sheets
- Hacksaw
- Hole-saw
- Strong Glue
- Spray Upholstery Glue
- Ruler
- Felt
- Screws (optional, for decoration)
- Black electrical insulation tape
- Sharp Knife
Step 1
The first step in creating your instrument panel is to prepare the monitor. As this mod includes covering the front of the monitor you are going to have to re position the buttons. If the monitor you are using has buttons on the sides, top or bottom rather than the front you can skip straight to step 2! If like me your old monitor had buttons placed on the front you are going to have to reposition them to the back. For me this involved flipping the button circuit board inside the monitor and moving the plastic buttons to newly drilled holes at the back.
Step 2
Now you have prepared the monitor we can move on to step 2. You want to start by measuring both the height and width of the monitor bezel (the plastic around the LCD screen) and the height and width of the actual screen. These two measurements are indicated in red in the diagram below.
You now need to cut both these measurements out of the acrylic, using the hacksaw or other appropriate sawing instrument. After this you should have two pieces of acrylic. One that fits over and covers the whole monitor face, and another that lies snug in the recess of the LCD panel inside the gap between the bezel. The diagram below may explain this better. The monitor in the left shows the first piece of acrylic laid on top of the monitor. The monitor on the right is a cross section of the monitor with the second piece lying snug within the bezel recess and the first piece laid on top of that.
Step 3
Now that you have the two pieces of acrylic cut it is time to bond them together. To do this place the smaller piece into the recess so that it fits snugly. Then go ahead and cover the exposed side with glue ensure there is enough for a strong bond, but not too much that it will spill over and bond to the bezel. After the glue has been spread place the bigger piece of acrylic on top, ensuring it is straight with the edges of the monitor bezel and firmly pressed onto the piece underneath. Leave the pieces to bond for the time indicated by the glue manufacturer.
Step 4
When the pieces are firmly bonded you can start to cut your holes for the instruments. Start by removing the bonded pieces from the monitor and placing it upside down on a surface to cut on. You want to drill the holes from the back to the front, this way you know all your holes are covered by LCD screen. This will ensure an edge less and more realistic look to the gauges.
The diagram above shows the direction and orientation in which you should drill the holes. The diagram below is an example of the pattern you could drill the holes into the acrylic.
Step 5
With the holes drilled you can now bond the acrylic piece to the monitor bezel. Do this using the strong glue on the bezel plastic and placing the acrylic on top, ensuring the inner piece that sits in the recces fits snugly and that the larger piece is aligned with the edge of the monitor.
Step 6
In this step we are going to finish the look of your instrument panel. Start by cutting a piece of felt that is big enough to cover the front and a little into the edges. Remember you can always trim some off but you can't add anymore on!
Next cover the felt in spray glue and wait for it to become tacky, then lay the felt over the acrylic and start to palm it onto the acrylic, and round the edges of the bezel for a firm adhesion. Once the glue has dried carefully cut out the holes in the felt using a sharp knife, take care to not cut too deep into the felt, taking time at this stage will greatly improve the look of the final product.
To finish the edges of the felt run a length of black insulation tape around the edges of where the felt meets the sides of the monitor. This will make the job look neat and professional, and will also stop the felt edges from lifting.
Step 7 (optional)
To add that little extra bit of realism to the panel you can add screws around the instrument holes like the ones in the picture. These will imitate the look if the screws that hold the instruments in place.
The red dots in the diagram above are where I placed my screws. To do this I drilled small pilot holes and then screwed the small screws into these. You should take extra care when doing this as not to drill into the LCD screen as this would probably end very badly, with a large crack and lots of funny colors.
Step 8 (software)
The software you use to emulate the gauges is totally your choice, although I personally would recommend the 'Basic Six Pack' by flightdecksoft.com.
The software is free and can be found at this link:
And there you have it, your very own GA instrument panel made from a few materials and an old monitor! Thank you for reading this tutorial and visiting my website. Have fun on your snazzy new flight simulator!
No comments:
Post a Comment