Ch. 4 - Instrument panel - Part 4

Cutting holes in the Instrument panel (3.1 hrs)

I’ve been wanting to cut the instrument panel for some time, but I worried about cutting tight radii (radiuses) with my vibrating cutter. I finally could wait no longer and started cutting anyway. 

Throwing caution to the wind

The tool produced a cut all right - but not the clean one I had hoped for, and for every rough cut I made, I could just imagine hours spent sanding fiberglass.

Nevertheless, I cut the two main leg holes, and tried sanding them with this drum attachment on my cordless drill.


That did not work!

Needing a better idea

Even at its highest speed the drill was too slow to remove any material, and because of that I had to use a lot of side pressure against the piece to force feed the sandpaper. Still not much was happening, except for my arm getting tired of holding the heavy drill.

Time to change strategy, and... when the going gets tough... the tough go shopping!

A trip to Home Depot rewarded me with a much sought after Dremel attachment. And this baby can make 90˚ turns!!!

Practicing on some scrap

While it looks like an innocuous drill bit, it is instead some sort of monster milling device that plunges into the work with the tip and cuts with the sharp sides. It is rated for a number of hard materials, including fiberglass.

Scored!

Tracing the hole

With the bit spinning at 5000 rpm you have to hang on for dear life to the tool, with both hands. 

Finished cut undisturbed...

Kind of dangerous really, but man... it cuts like a hot knife though butter!

... and disturbed :-)

It also allows you to cut right up close to your line, minimizing the sanding chores.

Pretty good finish for a roughing pass

It is so good in-fact, that I went back and trimmed the leg holes I had previously cut.

Panel cut, before sanding

While at the store, I also purchased a drum sanding attachment for my Dremel tool. Once spinning at 5000 rpm this bad-boy removed enough material in one pass as 1 hour worth of hand sanding.

Love it!

This was Mike's idea, and a good one I'll add.

Before long the instrument panel was completely cut and sanded...

Done! Finito!

... and this left enough time for a photo op...

"Experimental 123... you are cleared for take off!"