RaXha's attempt at Jedi's simpit

So, i finally decided to give this a go, and after having a look around i decided that i would try and make myself the Jedis home cockpit. I bought the needed plywood this week and i will be assembling this over the next few months, it's going to take a while since i have nowhere near the space needed to cut the parts, paint it etc at home so im going to be spending a few days a months occupying my poor dads garage. :music_whistling:

To make life easier for myself i had the cutting patterns printed at scale 1:1, my plan is to attach these directly to the plywood using wallpaper paste, and then using a jigsaw to cut along the lines. :P

I ran into a small issue today since my cutting patters were printed to fit a standard 1220x2440mm piece of plywood, but apparely 4 of the 5 plywood sheets i bought was only 1200x2400mm for some reason, so im going to have to rearange the parts to make everything fit, although i suspect i might need one extra sheet of plywood in the end anyways. :doh:

Today i spent most of the day glueing paper to plywood. :P

Looks like you are off to a very good start there RaXha. Keep the pictures flowing once you start start cutting Sir. Good luck on the project :-)

Cheers

Hans

Made some slow progress today. I'm having some trouble with my (old) jigsaw, it doesn't cut perfectly straight since the base plate apparently can't be completely fastened so if i apply pressure to the saw it sometimes tilts slightly to the sides. Im gonna have to live with it tough since i can't really afford a new one! :P

All 18mm parts have been cut and i began work on the first 12mm board.

Not much to show this weekend, except that I got a new significantly better jigsaw! Getting straight cuts is so much easier when you don't have to fight the tools. :-)

It's all about the tools! But my wife thinks otherwise! :)

Really a great start!!!

You can get by with a good hand drill a set of New bits I would suggest brad points

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-High-Speed-Steel-Brad-Point-Drill-Bit-Set-6-Piece-DW1720/202279646?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D25T-PowerTools%7c&gclid=CIHy9JXm_8wCFQiUaQodAL8DkQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

They cut the out side of the hole first a cleaner hole results.

A guide for your Jigsaw 3 or 4 foot level works great and a couple of hand clamps to hold down the level. and your cuts will improve even more.

I really like when people show their builds. I'll be around looking at your progress. Nice!

Really a great start!!!

You can get by with a good hand drill a set of New bits I would suggest brad points

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-High-Speed-Steel-Brad-Point-Drill-Bit-Set-6-Piece-DW1720/202279646?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D25T-PowerTools%7c&gclid=CIHy9JXm_8wCFQiUaQodAL8DkQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

They cut the out side of the hole first a cleaner hole results.

A guide for your Jigsaw 3 or 4 foot level works great and a couple of hand clamps to hold down the level. and your cuts will improve even more.

I'll try using a level as a guide next week! :-) Right now I'm using drills like the one in the link below to cut holes for starting the cuts and it's been working pretty good. I also have a drill attachment for cutting perfect circles up to 70mm in diameter.

I drill halfway until the point makes a small hole on the bottom side and then I drill the opposite direction to avoid splinters. :-) for the jigsaw I got some good blades made to cut straight and very clean cuts and they are fantastic. :-)

http://m.clasohlson.com/se/Centrumborrsats/30-7214

Looks great!!! Just keep on letting the saw and blade do the work and it will turn out great you will all ways need a bit of finish sanding to clean up the cuts but it should be minimal. Great work!!!

Really a great start!!!

You can get by with a good hand drill a set of New bits I would suggest brad points

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-High-Speed-Steel-Brad-Point-Drill-Bit-Set-6-Piece-DW1720/202279646?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-BASE-PLA-D25T-PowerTools%7c&gclid=CIHy9JXm_8wCFQiUaQodAL8DkQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

They cut the out side of the hole first a cleaner hole results.

A guide for your Jigsaw 3 or 4 foot level works great and a couple of hand clamps to hold down the level. and your cuts will improve even more.

Thanks. Will pick some up. I can add these to my acrylic-bits.

best bits I have used on acrylic.

Hi RaXha,

How's it working with the wallpaper paste to attach the plans. I was looking at going the CNC route but costwise there's just no contest if you've got the time and are prepared to cut it yourself. I'm intending to use MDF (yes, I know about the dust problem) and I've been looking for a way to temporarily attach the plan to the wood. I'm concerned about damaging the MDF using water to remove the paper after cutting.

Cheers

Hi RaXha,

 

How's it working with the wallpaper paste to attach the plans. I was looking at going the CNC route but costwise there's just no contest if you've got the time and are prepared to cut it yourself. I'm intending to use MDF (yes, I know about the dust problem) and I've been looking for a way to temporarily attach the plan to the wood. I'm concerned about damaging the MDF using water to remove the paper after cutting.

 

Cheers

Well, i'm gonna be honest and say that wallpaper paste was not the best choice due to two basic reasons:

1. The paper absorbs the fluid and deforms (causes big bubbles on the drawing), they go away somewhaty during drying but not completely. (ill get a photo the next time im at my dads garage).
   
2. The paper pretty much comes loose from the vibrations of the saw, so you need to be very carefull while cutting.
   

In other words it works, but i wouldn't recomend it. Of course it might adhere a lot better to the smooth MDF that it does the coarse plywood. I also tried using this and that worked fantastic, but the problem there was that i needed an entire can for each sheet of plywood so it got expensive fast.

If you can afford it i would go with the Spray Mount, the drawing can be readjusted for 12 hours before it sets and when it has set you can peel it of like a sticker after sawing without any noticable recidue (a quick sanding and it's perfectly clean) and it doesn't come loose during sawing like the wallpaper pase did. :-)

Edit: If you take a look at the photos in my first and second posts you can see the difference. The 6mm sheet in my first post is attached with Spray Mount, and the second sheet i used wall paper paste on (more bubbles)

best bits I have used on acrylic.

Even better. Thanks for the tips.

Hallo,

another very easy method to copy a plan on the wood is to use a clamph cloth with Aceton. Important is, that the plan is printed by a laserprinter. I think the first 3 pictures can say more than 1000 words.

If you wonder why I used 3 mm MDF (very easy to saw and sand exactly) I have added a view pictures to show my method of making the parts of my Cockpit by using an hand-guided router.

Hallo,

another very easy method to copy a plan on the wood is to use a clamph cloth with Aceton. Important is, that the plan is printed by a laserprinter. I think the first 3 pictures can say more than 1000 words.

 

If you wonder why I used 3 mm MDF (very easy to saw and sand exactly) I have added a view pictures to show my method of making the parts of my Cockpit by using an hand-guided router.

Very nice! Unfortunately the printer i used was a large Inkjet plotter so this wont be possible for me. The results look fantastic! :-)

You should look into the hand held router that autocorrects itself to produce perfect cuts. It was recently posted on this subforum.

You should look into the hand held router that autocorrects itself to produce perfect cuts. It was recently posted on this subforum.

I saw that. If I could afford that I could probably also afford paying someone to cnc it for me. :P

Thanks RaxHa, kinda thought that might be the problem with the wallpaper paste and I'd considered the spray mount instead. Just waiting on a final quote for CNC, then consider that against time, effort and no doubt a substantial amount of bad language! Then there's the feeling of having created something yourself aswell ...... decisions, decisions! Thanks as well to Bubbles for the idea, love your simpit!

I used 3 mm MDF

I cant even get lettuce that thin, 3mm MDF - isn't that cardboard?

To the OP, whats that jigsaw blade you use? I dont thing i have seen one in out home depo equivalent so i am limited by my jigsaw.

I cant even get lettuce that thin, 3mm MDF - isn't that cardboard?

 

To the OP, whats that jigsaw blade you use? I dont thing i have seen one in out home depo equivalent so i am limited by my jigsaw.

I bought some bosch blades designed for extra clean cuts without tearing the top and bottom layer of plywood. Home depot appears to have them available in their stores.

I use these for straight cuts, they can be used for slight curves but they really do try to keep going straight no matter what you do:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-4-1-2-in-Jig-Saw-Blades-5-Pack-T308B/202242756

And these for curved cuts:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-4-1-2-in-ECC-HCS-T-Shank-Jig-Saw-Blade-5-Pack-T308BO/202242766?keyword=T308Bo

Keep in mind that the Blades for curved cuts are only designed to cut up to 15mm thick material, but i managed to get by cutting very slowly on the 18mm board aswell. :-)

Bosch has a pretty good list of what blade to look for depending on the kind of work you need to do. :-)

https://www.boschtools.com/ca/en/boschtools-ocs/t-shank-jig-saw-blades-for-wood-t308bo-35144-p/

I cant even get lettuce that thin, 3mm MDF - isn't that cardboard?

 

To the OP, whats that jigsaw blade you use? I dont thing i have seen one in out home depo equivalent so i am limited by my jigsaw.

Hallo Mr_Burns

I use Bosch blades T 119 BO which can be used for courved cuts in wood (from 2-15mm).

The material is relly MDF 3mm, the same material you can get up 20mm, no cardboard.

http://www.bosch-pt.com/de/de/accocs/zubehoer/172323/14588/stichsaegeblaetter-basic-for-wood/stichsaegeblatt-t-119-bo/

The material is relly MDF 3mm, the same material you can get up 20mm, no cardboard.

 

I think what he was trying to say is that MDF that thin would resemble cardboard since MDF is pretty much made up of the same material (wood fiber) although a lot more densely packed. I have never seen MDF below 6 mm. :-)

RaXha's attempt at Jedi's simpit

No cutting this weekend so I took the time to apply the first layer of base coat to the cut parts. Lots of sanding and painting to do before assembly. :-)