Final two pieces of the puzzle.

Fingers crossed these are the last 2 pieces that will be cut tomorrow at the routing services company in Newport. I wanted to get this done as quick as possible since it will be full steam ahead for the Ryder Cup build up next week. The company is very near the Celtic Manor so traffic next week will be really busy.

I've had a slight design change of the air intake that will hold the fan. It now has less holes and they are spaced more closely together, hopefully this will help the airflow.

Last stage....(thank the Lord!!!) after having these cut will be to get the aluminium sheets powder coated.

I have set myself a deadline of October the 12th to have this project finished. The students start the new term on that date and I won't have any more time to work on it. So lets hope nothing unforeseen happens to it before that date.

USB Hub, UK PAT Testing, Fan....of the computer kind!

I just bought a D-link 7 x USB Hub to go in the case. I hope to pick it up tomorrow. I actually only need 4 ports, 1 for the CCU2, 1 for the Saitek Radio, another for the Simkits 32input controller and one more for a USB Simkits turn coordinator. But I figured that at some point I may want to upgrade to all USB instruments in the future and if I buy 2 of these D-link Hubs I will have enough to run all the neccesary hardware. Fingers crossed that I can run a USB instrument and CCU2 board together. I need to speak to Simkits to make sure that is possible.

A colleague has very gratefully offered to PAT test the Primary 6 Flight Simulator once it is completed. We have the machine at work and I am hoping to pass it with a current UK electrical certificate to make sure it is safe to use and that it won't turn me to ashes!!! Result!

I have completed within CAD to design a fan air intake for the case. I've been a bit concerned that the PSU may get a little hot when running so just in case I have added a 120mm fan at the back to cool everything down and allow for some flow of air. I noticed that Simkits have a grill in the back of their TRC472 for some air flow. I thought I better be safe than sorry.

Logo Design

I designed this new logo to put on the case once it has been painted. I was looking for a simple, clean design. The orange 6 is meant to represent a spiral off an aircraft engine spinner. I think it works quite well.

You may have noticed I have changed my blog to suit the new logo.

Machines

Some people have asked me about what machines I have been using. Here are some photos. I'm very lucky to have the use of these magnificent machines in my workplace. I work in a completely different department so it's a bit of baptism of fire. But I've learnt alot already.

This red one is metal cutter, and the other on is a metal folder.

Pedal to the Metal

I've made some great progress with the case in the last few days and I'm quite pleased with the results so far. I bought some aluminium sheet (2000mm x 1000mm x 1.2mm thickness) from a company in Cardiff. It was only £35! Bargain.

I used our metal cutter in work (very impressive machine - chops throgh sheet metal like a hot knife through butter ) to cut all the pieces to size. I then used a metal folding machine to bend the pieces at right angles so that it can be "pinned" to the MDF frame. (I am going to use 3mm machine screws to hold it all in place.

I have also designed 2 more pieces in CAD to fir the front and rear of the case. I made the outer edges 1.2mm thick so that it will be flush (fingers crossed) with the pieces on top and on the bottom. These two extra pieces need to be routed by InStyle routing services.

Next stage after this is to get the aluminium sheets powder coated white.

Oh and by they way you may have noticed that the MDF has now been painted with 2 coats primer. I used a small cheap roller to put the paint on evenly. It's not the best finish but these struts will never be seen anyway...so who cares.

If I was going to do this project again I would make the three struts out of aluminium. Not because it doesn't have strength, but because it would have looked much more like a real product rather than a project...if you get what I mean? I must admit the threaded rods are complete overkill, I could have got away with leaving them out. Oh well. It ain't going to fall apart, that's for sure.