-Ice's A-10 pit - first time pit builder

Finally had the time and resources to get materials to build my cockpit, so eased off into B&Q earlier today and got me some building tools and some material.

As I've just moved to the UK 18 months ago, I'm starting from scratch, so I had to get me a jigsaw, a bench, and some other bits-and-bobs. I've even had to go to WH Smith to get a protractor! :music_whistling:

I've decided to get as much material as I can... don't have a car at the moment so trips into B&Q can't really be spur of the moment type trips. Two 2440x1220x18mm boards cut up into itty-bitty pieces, more than enough for the two consoles, the front dash, and my seat mount.

I've managed to luck on a couple of sporty car seats for a reasonable price, which kinda kick-started this whole project.

Quite a bit of scrap material to practice on!

Here's the material for the seat base and for both side consoles. Thanks to Ragtop for sharing his experience with me; everything for the consoles fit in one 1220x607x18 sheet of MDF. The material for the seat base was taken from the other MDF sheets.

Most of the 3 other MDF sheets were used to create material for the front dash. Thinking back now, some parts could probably have been made out of 12mm or even thinner MDF... that front panel alone is very heavy!

I've bought a few lengths of kiln-dried wood as well for structural support the consoles. I've also been warned not to do MDF-to-MDF joining so each butt joint won't actually be joined to each other but will be screwed onto a piece of wood.

This is the first time I'm using a jigsaw so still getting used to it. The laser has not helped at all with doing straight cuts, and the side guide gave me a cut that was +/-1mm from what I wanted. Oh well, not bad for a first-time user, but any tips appreciated! I got a 750W, pendulum, variable speed jigsaw, I've not yet appreciated the difference between a slow blade vs a fast one, but boy, does this tool make a lot of fine dust! I thought at first I could work in this room for the rest of the build but it's probably going to be a pain; better to do the cutting outside in the shed then just work in the room during assembly.

Many thanks to Dimebag for his templates, he's saved me from having to come up with all the measurements! I just hope my seat will fit later on!

At the moment, my plan is to simply build the consoles, mount my Warthog, figure out the correct height for the seat and the monitor, and start playing. The consoles will be skeletal for now, until I can get some thin MDF to cover it. I will then start working on building the panels I use a lot like the AHCP and countermeasures panel. I'm hoping for a CDU panel later on, but with each button costing £1 each, that's going to be a pretty expensive CDU! This pit will be a WIP for a long time to come!

Tip for using a saw, MK1 Eyeball always beats a laser and for straight cuts use a straight piece of wood or metal as a saw guide. To do that measure from the blade to outside edge of saw deck then clamp down your saw guide at that distance from where your cut mark is. If your going to creat holes in a front panel buy a cheap hole saw kit (that will fit your drill chuck) or get an adjustable hole saw (found online).

In any case you a great stock of supplies to get started with and a great community with smart members (not me) to give you tips and point you in the right direction. Good luck, I always enjoy watching simpit builds and the differing approaches!

EDIT/WARNING: If you do a great job building and build too quickly you're shooting yourself in the foot for later projects around the house. Wife will say if you built that so well/quick you can make me X or Y or Z........ LOL

Looking forward to following your progress Ice, it's like looking at where I was 3 weeks ago, so i'll be very interested to see how things progress for you!

Shoot me a PM if theres anything I can help you with.

Could you possible go into detail about how you are going to mount the seat? Thanks in advance.

Awesome Ice look forward to seeing more!

Welcome to a eolrd that will eat your time at breakfast, but its so rewarding, its worth all seconds. And welcome to middle project change too.

Congrats on starting a pit! Keep the progress coming

Thanks guys!

Sorry I was not able to post yesterday, finished building the left console and stuck the inclined risers with wood glue. Decided to close my eyes for 30 minutes while waiting for the glue to set, next thing I know it's 4am!

Anyway, here's some progress pics!

My temporary work area. I've cut my panels in the shed behind the house, but nothing beats a nice warm room when you're working, eh?

Test-fitting my TM Warthog throttle...

My cuts aren't too perfect so there's a bit of a gap here and there, but no worries. You'll also notice that my throttle mounts look different... that's because I took the tops off over the throttle screw holes. I like the idea of everything being secure in place so I'm planning to screw the throttle into the console assembly.

A few bits of would to secure the throttle to...

A trip to B&Q again to get some 6mm MDF for the panels... I think I got a bit carried away... or got my measurements wrong. Oh well, nothing wrong with extra material lying about! What amazes me is that it costs £7+ for a 1220x607 sheet, but only £10 for a 2440x1220. So guess which size I went and bought?

And here is my work done for today... clamping and curing the right console incline risers.

You'll notice that most of my rib assemblies do not have the hole cut into them... still need to find a trick to quickly cut into annoying little box-shapes. I know the trick with the drill, but not too happy with it. Still, I'm thinking, the heavier it is, the sturdier it will be, so not too fussed about it.

HHF, you're warning came too late, mate. Already got an order for a shoe rack and a step stool from the big boss. You're right though, nothing beats the eyeball, though I've noticed that even if my cut is straight through the pencil line, sometimes the cut itself isn't square. Need to learn to relax and drive the jigsaw and not to pull it.

Ragtop, I sure hope I finish this project in less than 3 weeks! I'm just aiming for a proper setup, obviously all the panels and lighting and switches will be a WIP, but getting the proper "cockpit form" is my goal before I start work again on Monday.

98abaile, the current plan for mounting the seats is to mount them onto two 47x47mm blocks of wood which is going to be raises above the ground by a certain amount. This height is going to be decided by how the seat fits into the whole setup... when I've decided, I will attach the seat through a "floor" of MDF and through the block of wood I mentioned earlier, and will be secured with bolts. Hope that helps. I'll post a pic once I get to that stage.

Excellent progress Ice!

It's great to see you're coming along so nicely. The reason you'll want the holes in the ribs is so you can feed panel wiring through, so don't worry about how straight it is, cause you'll never see it, however unfortunately the drill bit is the only way. It's really easy once you've done it once or twice though.

Isn't the U-shapes on the top enough space for the wiring?

It may well be, I found that using solid core wire (good for the Leo Bodnar) it's a little bit brittle, pushing them that far up could cause breakages if you moved them about a lot.

Hmmm.... always thought that the holes were for "saving weight," I don't think we'll be running cables and cables through this. Lol! However, will need to sort out cable management once I cross that bridge.

Starting on the center console now, while everyone is asleep, sneaking in some work during "quiet time."

Haha, if you can keep that kind of thing quiet, I'm impressed! I always end up with the jigsaw or something making a racket.

Are you building the centre console as it is in Dimebugs plans, or doing it custom?

I think I just made the circular saw my beyatch!

I got one for B&Q earlier today and tried playing with it, seeing how I can make accurate cuts with it. For some reason, I couldn't seem to make anything decent, whether going by the guide, the saw cut, or the laser. I gave up after 45 minutes and went back to my jigsaw and built the right console, thinking I was going to return this saw sometime soon.

With the right console done and still wide awake, I decided to at least measure out my center console panels for cutting tomorrow. Oh boy! Lots lof fine, straight, long lines to cut with a jigsaw! Tried playing with the circular saw again (yes, at 1:30am!), and finally figured out the distance from the edge of the guide to where the teeth cut! Yay! After a few more trial cuts, I was ready!

I clamped the two pieces of boards that was going to be my flanc externe, aligned my guide, positioned my material squarely on the workbench, and started cutting. Whoa! This thing sure is noisy, I hope nobody calls the police at 2am and complain of somebody using a power tool!! And it spat out wood dust everywhere! However, taking my setup apart, I was rewarded with a very dusty room and a very clean, very precise cut on not one, but TWO boards! Whoo hoo!! Looks like the center console will be done by tomorrow evening after all!

Ragtop, I will be doing the center console as per Dimebug's plans with a few exceptions: 1) I will not be putting in a cloison avant, 2) the front panel will be clean/plain, and 3) the top will be a bit lower, so that my screen is about eye level and the lower bevel of the screen will be about flush with the edge of the front panel. There will be supports behind the front panel to support my monitor, but aside from that, it will be close to Dimebug's plans.

I hope it will be a nice day tomorrow, I need to do my cicular saw cuts outside, the amount of dust this generates is just insane!

I think I just made the circular saw my beyatch!

 

Pictures or it didn't happen :D

On second thought we don't want to see you sexually assaulting a circular saw! Power tool always wins!

Saw guide for the win......

Nice job on the progress so far, look really good.

Will post pics in a few... and no, no sexual acts was done in the building of this pit, and no family jewels have been lost or otherwise harmed in the making of this project. :D

Got up at 9:30am this morning, had breakfast, then acquired permission to resume my build. :) Best to clear everything with the boss before you do anything, hehe...

Finally figured out how to work the circular saw in the wee hours this morning, so I put that new skill to good use. Here is the montant piece before and after cutting:

The circular saw does generate a lot of dust, more than my trusty jigsaw. Luckily I bought a mask yesterday. This, gentlemen, is wood POWDER.

Was not long before I had most of the material for the front console all cut nice and even. Photo uploaded to photobucket, shows up oriented properly there, I wonder why it's still on portrait mode here. Any ideas?

Now working with putting things together. Already told the wife she should start thinking about how she wants her shoe rack and step stool built. :D

Lucky you i m having a hard time trying to find MDF around here.

Haha, wish I could send you some, I have it coming out of my ears, I'm sure Ice does too!

I do have a few bits of MDF about, from spare cuts and such and the "overrun" from my 2 2440x1220 sheets. Unfortunately, I bet shipping to Rio will be a pain. I'm sure there's some MDF in your area, though it might have a different name. Construction shops and DIY stores would have them.

Here's a few more pics of my progress. I'm calling it a night, since I have to work tomorrow. Two weeks and then another week's holiday. Yay!

This is the front panel/console starting to take shape. At first I was worried my Saitek rudders might not fit but after a test-fit, there was nothing to worry about.

Here's the underside for the console floor. I'm really paranoid regarding structural integrity so there is no way I'm screwing MDF-to-MDF.

The solution? MDF-to-timber-to-MDF!

Test-fitting the Saitek pedals to be sure...

And a few more material in place...

Here is a test-fit of all 3 consoles together. I must say I am a bit worried about the whole assembly being too low to the floor, but then again that just makes getting in/out easier.

Here's the work done on the seat. At first I planned to have two beams running left-to-right to support the weight, but for some reason I've measured the distance erroneously so I had to put one beam per side.

After that test-fit, I put in the MDF flooring and attach the side supports. Basically, the flooring is there to keep everything neat once the seat is turned upright. The beams are there to provide additional structural support both for the seat and for the supports for the entire assembly.

Here is the seat ready to use!

And test-fitting the entire setup...

After a few minutes sitting on the chair, I think the seat is too low with regards to flooring and the front instrument panel so I think I'll be raising it by a few more inches tomorrow. This is easily done by removing the side-supports (the ones screwed on the beams) and replacing it with different heights. So technically I can adjust the height until perfect! Also, my seat somewhat widens at the top so with the way it is now, the right console has to be off to the right by about 20-23mm to make room for the seat --- not really enough of a bother, which will probably resolve once I raise the seat up a bit more.

I also need to find a way to secure all 4 sections of the cockpit together. The left and right console can essentially clamp onto the front console, the clamps being placed at the incline risers going through the front console floor supports. Attaching the seat assembly to this whole setup will be a bit of a challenge. I'm also thinking of a way for the right console to be put out of the way, either by swinging to the side or something, for ease of getting in and out and for the additional "cool factor."

I've not mounted the front instrument panel just yet, still working getting it to shape. A front panel of 18mm MDF sure is hefty! I'm thinking of having it replaced with maybe a 9mm one in the future. Since I'm also mounting my LCD monitor on this setup, I need to work out something that will act as it's platform behind the front panel... no sense working that out until I've got the front panel in place and have played around with the seat height.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't put the top-angle on the montant and flanc externe pieces as I'll technically have to un-do this angle to mount my monitor properly. I guess the original idea for this build was to have a projector shining through the back to display instruments and such and thus needed an angled pane but for my purposes, I've just done extra-complicated cutting that I didn't really need.

Oh well, lessons learned. The great thing about this being a modular build is that I can always scrap the front console later on if I want to build a new one, or maybe just replace the montant and flanc externe pieces with properly cut ones.

Wow, looks great.

Hi Ice

its look great , keep it going.

i have some Q - what about cutting holes in the panels case or cables transfer?

Avi

avlolga, I think the space cut out on each rib is enough for the wires when I eventually make the panels. If neccesary, I'll just cut some more material out of the gaps, but I think it is enough for now.