Getting it cnc cut

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During the design process I decided i was going to spend money and have someone cut my cockpit out for me for a few reasons

• I don't have a CNC machine. I considered buying one in the early days, but settled on the laser engraver instead. Even if i had of git a CNC, it would definitely not have had a bed large enough to cut out most parts of the cockpits external structure.
• I wanted to save time. The time involved in printing out the plans onto A3 paper, then cutting and sticking them together as templates, then marking and cutting the wood with a jigsaw, would be time taken away from building and flying.
• I wanted to minimise noise and dust. Doing it by hand in my garage with an infant child in the house would have made my life hard. Happy wife, happy life. Not to mention- MDF dust is hazardous to your health, and I don't have any dust exaction in my garage.
• I didn't want to have to be buying materials. I only had a sedan at the time, and transporting the materials from hardware stores to my home would have been a pain. I likely would have paid for delivery, which would drive up costs.

After doing a bit of online research, I emailed off quotes to most of the machine shops around my local area. A few never got back to me, I figured they were not interested. A couple got back to me, with quotes that were untenable. One got back to me, saying they couldnt do the job, but recommending the place I eventually went with.

I got my cockpit structure cut at Branchflowers CNC Routing & Design in Richmond, Victoria.

I got them done in separate parts, the Main Instrument Panel first, then the consoles and seat last. 

I did this because I didn't build it all in one go, I had a working Main Instrument Panel with all the electronics before I even started on the consoles. 

Please note I have no financial interest in Branchflowers, I'm just a normal customer who paid full price and like what i got. Also, their quoted prices may have changed- it's been a few years.

Prices were;

• $275 AUD for the front console complete. Cheapest because its cut from only MDF.
• $355 AUD for both the side consoles. More expensive as its cut from plywood.
• $320 AUD for the ACES II seat complete. Plywood.

Seems expensive, but remember that the prices above include supply of all materials. All I did was send an email, then about a week later I drove in and picked the parts up. I remember when I first collected them I was immediately concerned... everything looked too small and I was terrified I had messed the scale up in Coreldraw. I was expecting heaps of large parts- not so much.

I had the designs cut in a mixture of 12mm MDF, 6mm MDF, and 12mm Structural Plywood.

I chose MDF for the front because;

• Its easy to work with, and is smooth and very easy to paint. The MIP has to look good, as you will be staring right at it most of the time!
• The MIP really doesn't support any weight other than itself, so I wasn't too concerned about strength.

I chose plywood for the seat and consoles because;

• They needed to be strong. The seat for obvious reasons, and the side consoles because climbing in and out they are used as hand holds.
• The finish is not as important. Only the outer skins are really visible, and they are 3mm MDF. The console ends and sides of the seat that are visible were filled and sanded to look smooth, which was not such a big job.