I know this is a cross-post but I was hoping for more luck here.

Can anyone refer me to a place or someone that would be to CNC MDF for my pit?
I got a hold of AutoCad files that would allow me to put together a pit but
so far I am not finding any luck with shops that can help me out.

Try http://www.100kgarages.com

g.

That is a cool link, Gene. If its not already, perhaps this should be placed in the 'Cockpit Bulding 101' sticky...

Good to see there is a shop not too far from my house and near my kids. Thanks!
Derek

Ooh, awesome! The closest to me is about 40 miles away, in the city of Orange, California. Might be worth the trip. Been thinking about starting another Akers-Barnes and having everything CNC'd for me this time, but I gotta learn basic CAD so I can add my custom mods to it. Ryyy, what type of pit did you get AutoCAD files for?

Thanks guys for the help, greatly appreciated!

Hey Renic!

Glad to see that you live in California as well. 40 miles from Orange? I live around 50 miles from Orange in Riverside.
I'm assuming you contacted CraftsmanCNC. I just sent them an e-mail with the plans and am waiting for an estimate.

The plans I got are a pit design from Jedi over at the DCS forums. It's an awesome design as the whole entire thing can be broken
down and transported in your car.

Here is the pit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uywu-iQSDOo

Oh, Jedi's pit! That thing is epic! Yeah, I'm in Rancho Cucamonga! If it's cheaper to do two at once, I'd be willing to go in on it with you.

Oh man, definitely. When they e-mail me back I will let you know and see if we would be able to make a deal with them! Then LAN party with our pits? Epic realistic wingman missions haha.

Haha, I'm so down! As long as we let my cousin fly in my Akers-Barnes. He'd feel left out otherwise, and hey, we get another wingman!

I actually contacted a few throughout California with the same plans, just waiting for a response from them to see how much this would cost us.

If you guys aren't in a squadron you should check us out. DCS-Mercs are a good group, we host our own missions and are of varying skill levels (certified NOOB myself). Another good reason is that we have a number of us in California (north or south) and a few more on the west coast in general. Let me know if you guys are interested (link below).

If you're NOOB level, Hitch, I guess I would be SUB-NOOB. I have probably about 45 minutes of stick time in DCS A-10C. Been working graveyards and it's hard to get any "me" time. Hopefully by November I'll be able to get on a regular shift and get some normalcy back in my life. But I guess that's what happens when you're at the bottom of the totem pole. I'm totally interested in joining a squad, but I don't have any time to fly right now.

Is there a place those plans can be downloaded or purchased?

tnx.

g.

Gene, yeah, over on the official DCS forums in the "Home Cockpits" sub-forum. It's in the thread "Jedi's A-10C home made cockpit".

Thanks Renic. Here's a direct link: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=78417

I've offered to produce an optimized version of the drawings for CNC - if jedi takes me up on it, I'll publish the results, including the CRV files from VCarve Pro.

g.

Awesome. Scanning through the thread it seems that there is some sort of issue with the files, perhaps that's why Ryyy has yet to let me know anything. I'm still down to do a group build/buy of this, even though I'm in the middle of my current build!

Alright so I've been back and forth with three shops and an independent cutter up in Palmdale.

I've got a price range which would be around $175. The work from Gene with helping us get the optimized plans that will really just let the vendor
load the file and start cutting has cut down the cost dramatically. Just waiting on the finalized ones.

I have me and another friend that are going to purchase so let me know Renic if you're seriously interested.

You and anyone else who reads this can e-mail me at rynpaulbert@gmail.com .
SimHQ seems to not agree for some reason and not notify me if I have any private messages.

I am gauging on perhaps making a thread for local Californian's who want in on this as well and perhaps we can get the price down if we do a
batch from the vendor.

I am down to do this, but I won't have any extra money until the 14th. I was planning on getting a TrackIR5 then, but I would rather grab another pit! $175 is worth it to me to have such an awesome design cut professionally.

Contact the shop and see if we can get a group buy discount and how many people we would need to purchase the pit in total in order to get some sort of discount.

Thanks for your hard work on this, I was following the thread on ED, seemed like quite a bit went into getting this done!

And thanks to Gene too, great job on optimizing the plans!

Hey there Renic,

No worries about having money at this very moment. I'm not planning on having this done until the end of the month and/or the details are finalized.

I sent over an email about a "group" buy tonight and I'll be waiting for his response. He's usually good to hit me back up in a timely manner so hopefully I can get an answer soon.

I did forget to mention that he did not include the price of the 5mm bit he would need to purchase for his CNC machine as he does not carry that size. We would have to put in a little more than $175 to cover the purchase of the bit and from my other sources, the bit should cost maybe around ~$30. Hopefully with multiple orders this should not even matter.

I also did ask him to confirm the price WITH materials and bit included, as he did not specify if the $175 covered for them.

Stay posted (:

Here's the link for the optimized plans and VCarve Pro files:
http://www.geneb.org/a10/optimized-wharthog-v2.zip

There are no tool paths included in the CRV files - I figured CNC ops would have their own ways of doing things and this is pretty easy to path.

You MUST use a 5mm or smaller cutter to cut these out - that's the bit I specified for the optimization.

A 5MM cutter can be had from Centurion Tools for less than $20:
http://www.centuriontools.com/router_bit...2=2&id3=424

You'll need to use a 1/8" cutter for doing the lettering pocket operations to make sure the lettering comes out ok.

You can get 4x8 sheets of Russian Birch @ 12mm for anywhere from $24 to $36 a sheet. 18mm floats around $40 a sheet, but you don't need very much of that. I don't know what 6mm goes for.

g.

Can't help since I folded my shop a few years back but it is cool to see how CNC machining is somewhat mainstreamed now. I did it for 20+ years.


Wheels

Hey Gene, I am getting a 404 error when I try your link above for the optimized plans for the 'Wharthog'. I may look into a quote from a local shop on cutting these and I'm assuming these plans would have more detail for the CNC...?
Thanks
Derek

Here's the updated file:

http://www.geneb.org/a10/optimized-wharthog-12oct11.zip

There were some errors that were discovered and fixed - mostly related to misplaced dogbones.

The original thread on the eagle forums discussed this and I had completely forgotten that I'd posted a link here as well. Sorry!

g.

Thanks Gene. I'd been out with the missus today for an anniversary dinner and then a movie at home.
I can easily view the "....dxf" files with some freeware called 'DWG TrueView' and I assume the "....crv" files require the CNC software that you mentioned previously. I'm sure the shop I found will have this since the advertise for all types of wood fabrication via CNC.
Regards,
Derek

The CRV files were created by VCarve Pro v6. You can view them with the trial version found here: http://www.vectric.com

g.

The local shop got back to me with an estimate of $340 (+tax)for all the cuts on the Jedi simpit with him supplying the materials. This seemed a bit high for me, even with the materials supplied but its a moot point now since my old Jaguar failed its annual inspection and needs a handful of parts to pass. Goodbye fun money.

Is it close enough to use 1/4" for the 6mm, 1/2" for the 12mm and then 3/4" for the 18mm boards? Just in case I get off easy with the Jag parts.
Derek

1/4" is 0.35mm thicker, or about the thickness of a fingernail. 1/2" is 0.7mm thicker and 3/4" is 1mm thicker (thickness of thinnest CD). Material strength-wise it's fine, it'll just be cuts that might need slight adjustments (Cuts where pieces are to slot into one another).