Vince "da Vinci" build (The italian Learjet 45 project)

[vcimmino]

It was a bit that I wanted to start a my own thread on this site with my build and wanted to arrange a sort of the best of the best of it. Unfortunately the time is always lacking so I'll start from the very latest parts I'm making. I'm building a Bombardier Learjet 45 and some other images of my work in progress and parts are in my own presentation thread present in the dedicated forum.

You might wonder why "Da Vinci"... well I'm italian, and someone says that I'm an artist in handcrafting. I really don't have such an high consideration of my parts and this supposed "talent", what I aim in truth is only being satisfied by my hobby. I love making pieces with my own CNC and plan even complex parts. It's so nice to watch your ideas come true from that tiny bit struggling around a table :-D

Thus said I'll start by presenting some of the pedestal panels that are in progress. They are common parts found also in other aircrafts: a King HF, a SELCAL (same as MD80 and other planes), an Honeywell WX radio, a TRIM Panel and an APU. Hours of cad planning, a lot of handworking and quite more then a bit of patience are needed. Result though is satisfactory in my opinion.

Here are some of the panels just after being cut. I don't make real bakers for my panels. Everything is milled out from a single piece of acrylic. This helps with backlighting fitting and gives a final all in on piece. Easier to have maintainance on them later too.



And after the painting process done... In this image the Rudder trim knobs...  Those are self made too. I've made many other kind of knobs in the past sold to other learjet builders around the world. A second set of those with at least 10 different types is in progress too... a lot of work to do.



You can also notice how the shape of the panels is different the one from the others and reflects exactly the real one. CAM is very helpful and advanced 3D conturing in particular has been used on the WX panel to achieve the complex border shown. The same will apply to the EFIS panels that are in the glareshield that have a similar shape.
Also as those parts are all two side milled, there are still some areas left (like inside the buttons) that will be removed later. In those areas I usually place reference points to help me reversing the piece and work on the back.

Next is the detail of the secondary trim sliders. Those are really tiny, even smaller then my own smallest finger nail.



To end with, an global view of what done so far...



and a detail of the trim panel just after being engraved:



All the panels I'm making will be backlit and will have a PWM regulation to dim and stabilize the light coming from the backlighting to the same level.

I'll try and post more done so far soon. My own blog anyway has a gallery area with a lot of images of my productions.

[autocadplease]

Awesome work!
Please post your progress!

[XOrionFE]

Stunning as always Vince.  you are truly a master with your craft.

I have had the pleasure of seeing some of Vinces work first hand and it is incredible to say the least.

Keep showing more as you can Vince.

Your friend,
Scott

[ETomlin]

Very nice work, and Im proud to say that Vince is a well-established charter member of our LJ45 dedicated builder's group Hangar45.

His work has been very inspirational and a driving force for many of our members!

[Trevor Hale]

Wow.. Incredible Post, and Fantastic work.  Thanks for this post, really good to see what people are working on.

Trev

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Incredible CNC work. They look really good.

[shaneb]

Amazing work as always Vince . . you never fail to suprise me with "additional parts" for the Lear. Thanks for providing a Lear resource!   

[MLeavy737]

Sweeet!! That is awesome looking.. Awesome job on those panels, must be nice to be able to do that yourself

Mike Leavy

[vcimmino]

Thanks for the kind words guys... I'll add updated of the WIP... :-)

[Per Alm]

Absolutely stunning Vince!! Your work is fantastic, truly fantastic!!

Regards  Per

[vcimmino]

An update of my own pedestal panels work in progress. Today I completed the TRIM panel and backlighted it. A bunch of images of the complete piece and an image from the real learjet part (courtesy of XOrionFE).

The replica panel...



...And an image of the real one (a lot weared...). I'm looking for those red caps, if anyone is aware of where to find them please suggest me.



I don't like the screws to be painted in colour. That's just a personal taste, I prefere the silver/grey pairing.



A lateral view of the panel. You can notice the bulk section of it. That is a what I call a "light chamber". The back of the main panel is milled to empty it and the same is done on the black backer, creating an empty space inside the two (around 10mm) Backlighting for those panels is made with special SMD driven led strips (selfmade). The strip is just 5mm tall and put on internal side of the light chamber (in this case light flood from down to top). This help diffusion is an huge way then simple spot led toward the characters to be illuminated. Just 6 SMD leds light the whole panel and I even had to dim the source to around 8V from 12V original. (Those leds are in series 3x + a resistor). This means that probably even just 4 of them might have lighted the 146x57mm big front space. Lowering the power isn't a problem as my whole cockpit will have PWM driven dimmers to uniform the appearance.



Details of the trim levers assembly. No metal parts here. That's all plastics correctly painted with aluminium colour and stickers. Effect is very good.






Here an evidence of light uniformity troughout the panel. The knob is only job left to complete. This applied is one of the white acrylic prototypes. I made molds of them and the final piece will be made of epoxy transilluminated resin.



The next to come is the WX panel, that is about 80% done, images soon.

[shaneb]

Great work Vince . . hope those will be offered for purchase at some point!   

[XOrionFE]

Holy smokes Vince!

You've outdone yourself again.   The panel is fantastic and your backlight idea is extremely innovative. Would be nice to see a dark shot with it lit up....

Awesome!

Scott

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Looks fantastic! Don't forget to paint the screws that attach the backplate to the lightplate. Details...

There's also a slight radius on the srcew hole Dutz fastener locations located on the lightplate.

Nitpicking I know, and no one would ever know except us, but...well you know, and I'm a detail freak. 

[vcimmino]

I suppose that they are 5/32" while I'm using 4mm due to our metric system. This is why looks like there's some radius. I'll have to ask to some of my US friends to find them for me :-) The screws are not painted yet for a my own choice. Too many screwings in the finalizing phase so it would wear the paint.

[mowgli]

Ciao anche io sono italiano, sto cercando di costruirmi un cockpit learjet, se fossi disposto a darmi qualche suggerimento te ne sarei grato.
Ho visto che hai creato i vari pannellini elettrici con la resina, la mia domanda vuole essere: lo stampo master come l'hai fatto? in che materiale?
Io non ho mai usato la resina quindi scusami dell ignoranza,ma sono proprio all' abc.
Se puoi darmi qualche suggerimento su come fare, potro' iniziare a costruire i vari moduli.

Grazie ancora per la disponibilita'

Saluti

Paolo

[mowgli]

Scusa sempre io,come hai fatto a disegnare i caratteri retroilluminati,sto diventando pazzo nel trovare una soluzione(plexiglass,etc),ma le lettere come dovrei farle?

ciao ancora

Paolo