Best material for new instrument display panel

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roblpm

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My boat has a sort of pod above the companionway which I would like to reuse the back part of.

The front removable part with the instrument displays mounted on it is actually molded out of fibreglass. It is curved on the top corners to fit the back of the pod. It has a return folded on the bottom to sort of make the bottom of the whole box though it isn't sealed very well.

First failed effort......

3mm perspex. Cut the curves ok. However it is far too brittle to drill all the mounting holes and cut the holes for the instruments. It just shatters when you drill it if it is close to an edge.

Also i was going to heat it with a blowtorch and bend it but that seems nearly impossible!

So maybe I should do a flat front panel. And somehow attach a cover underneath to seal it up. Rubber or something?

Any ideas on the best material to actually cut out the panel. Don't participate want to do wood as there isn't much wood on my boat and it will look odd!

Not so bothered about the bending return underneath as I can maybe seal the bottom some other way.
 
roblpm said:
If i did this do you think they would cut the screw holes? Or would you drill them?
Click to expand...

They would cut anything you want, screw holes included. They will also laser etch text or borders, like you find on switch panels etc. I had some small panels made by them recently and they made a perfect job of them for a very sensible price.

If you'd like a catalogue of the available materials, PM me with an email address and i'll send you one.
 
I made a custom panel from a sheet of Tufnol, which comes in various thicknesses, is tough, easy to machine and quite cheap. First I cut out the holes and then I sprayed it matt grey all over. I then made a self-adhesive transparent sheet with lettering etc on an ink-jet printer which I stuck over the painted Tufnol (you can buy all sorts of printable materails in A4 sheets, not just paper. Cloth is good for making courtesy flags btw). Tufnol is useful stuff to have aboard anyway.

No need to put the printed layer on if you don't need to; you could just paint it any colour you like with car spray paint.

https://www.directplastics.co.uk/tufnol-sheet
http://www.photopaperdirect.com/pro...aper-Matt-Glossy-Multipack-Special-Offer.html
 
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roblpm said:
If i did this do you think they would cut the screw holes? Or would you drill them?
Click to expand...

Yes, they cut holes. What you do is send an image with black lines where you want engraving, and red lines where you want cutting. So a red circle becomes a round screw-hole.

However, I'm not sure there's really much need for engraving, nor precise cutting, of a hatch-garage panel. If it's three-dimensional then personally I'd do as pvb suggests and make a like-for-like replacement in GRP. It's not as hard as you think.

Pete
 
I used a piece of broken Perspex washboard to make a new panel for my binicle instruments. It's 10mm or so thick rather than 3mm, so it takes the stress of holes and cutting better than the thinner stuff. For drilling holes, I found that it was best to use a high drill speed but very little pressure on a sharp drill, so there not much chance of causing stress to the plastic. It is a balancing act though: too little pressure and you melt the plastic rather than cutting it, too much and it cracks. The holes in my panel are with a few mm of the edges with no cracking.
That said, I made my panel during the winter living aboard in Greece as I couldn't explain well enough to the local plastic man what I wanted done (my Greek and his English were on a par). If I'd been in UK I'd have gone round to the local plastic man and got him to cut and drill it for me.
 
duncan99210 said:
I used a piece of broken Perspex washboard to make a new panel for my binicle instruments. It's 10mm or so thick rather than 3mm, so it takes the stress of holes and cutting better than the thinner stuff. For drilling holes, I found that it was best to use a high drill speed but very little pressure on a sharp drill, so there not much chance of causing stress to the plastic. It is a balancing act though: too little pressure and you melt the plastic rather than cutting it, too much and it cracks. The holes in my panel are with a few mm of the edges with no cracking.
That said, I made my panel during the winter living aboard in Greece as I couldn't explain well enough to the local plastic man what I wanted done (my Greek and his English were on a par). If I'd been in UK I'd have gone round to the local plastic man and got him to cut and drill it for me.
Click to expand...

Yes. My daughter was slagging me off for my haste and splitting the 3mm. She blamed my incompetence. However I think spending hours making the thing and then having it split on the last drill hole is too risky. Interesting using thicker perspex. I am waiting for the laser cutting people to get back to me with a price.
 
3mm is far too thin for this type of job, but even then it is not difficult to drill accurate holes without breaking if the panel is clamped firmly onto a backing while drilling. However you are better off with 6mm+, but you won't easily get any bend in that without heat.

However support getting it done by a signmaker - presumably you only want holes for the instruments and screw holes.
 
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