I built my first panel with aircraft grade plywood and the second with 6061-T6 Aluminum sheet when I replaced the original a few years ago. Photos of both are at <http://jeffsplanes.com/KR/2013_Panel.html>. If I had to do another, I would use Aluminum again. Aluminum made for a pretty simple and clean installation. Aircraft Spruce sells a double ended punch that has the two primary instrument hole sizes on each end for $160, but somebody in your local EAA Chapter should have the punches available to use. Everything else can be done with a die grinder (or Dremel) and a unibit.
Building a panel using foam core is a problem in that the screws will want to pull into the panel unless you clean around every screw hole and fill with milled fibers or flox. If I wanted a composite panel (which I have considered), I would do a single layup of carbon fiber for the face, then laminate the rest with glass, probably 8 - 10 lay ups to make a reasonably solid panel. I need to build a new panel for my SuperCub clone sometime in the near future. Maybe I'll try that method. Thanks for planting the seed to make me think about it. :o) -Jeff Scott Cherokee Village, AR Sent: Monday, February 12, 2018 at 9:22 AM Cc: "Luis Claudio" <dallasbori...@yahoo.com> Subject: KR> Instrument Panel KR2S I am torturing myself with the decision to build the instrument panel out of aluminum or do a layup of glass and foam. Can I have your input on what you did? I value greatly the inputs and discussions on this forum and its great to be able to be knocked back into reality by your comments and suggestion... working like the dickens to get this bird flying... Luis R Claudio, KR2S Dallas, Texas _ _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
