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3D printed bezels

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 2:59 am
by ChuckK
Here's a pic of my panel project. I have trim bezels around the 3 1/16 gauges and an encoder and button bezel around the Aspen instrument. The round bezels with a plexiglass lens really add to the realism of the panel. Note the difference between the VSI and cabin pressure instruments

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 11:01 am
by Ralph
Looks like a promising project. Keep us updated!

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2016 9:23 am
by frumpy
Nice one! :)

How did you cut the plexiglas? How thick is the wood of the panel? How did you cut it?
Will you sell these bezels?

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 4:01 pm
by JackZ
Chuck, I like your 3D printed bezels and the ASPEN bezel too. All of them are 3D printed?
Would you share the STL file in that case?
I've asked for a 3D printer to Santa for Christmas... 8-)

Jacques

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 6:36 pm
by ChuckK
The panel is Baltic birch plywood about 6mm thick. All the bezels are 3D printed in PLA. I cut the plexiglass with aviation snips to get it close then sanded it in with a bench sander.

A word on PLA, it's very easy to print and best of all has basically no shirkage unlike ABS. It's soften temp is pretty low and it doesn't do well outdoors but no problem for an indoor sim.

I have large and small gauge bezels as well as instrument bezels for the Aspen, S55x autopilot, GNS 430 and 530, garmin 330 transponder. I'd be more than happy to share these on the site. I know some folks use github but I'm not real familiar with that. My bezels include the means to moun t 6x6 tact switches along with all the buttons. The prints are all done without support face down then add on pieces are super glued in place to add depth to the bezel. The only downside to it is the collimation effect you get when the screen is 6mm plus the thickness of the switch hardware from the bezel face. There are ways to improve it a bit.

Also I have a Makergear M2 printer with Simplify 3D slicer software. It is awesome. It's like a little machine tool. Highly Recommended!!( FYI no business connection, just a very satisfied owner)

Chuck

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:33 pm
by flyatr
ChuckK wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2016 2:59 am Here's a pic of my panel project. I have trim bezels around the 3 1/16 gauges and an encoder and button bezel around the Aspen instrument. The round bezels with a plexiglass lens really add to the realism of the panel. Note the difference between the VSI and cabin pressure instruments
Hey, can you share the model files of your bezels? I got myself a nice toy that's waiting for first projects :D .

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 3:49 am
by JackZ
Talking about 3D printed bezel and encoders, a guy from the Aircockpit.com French builders’ forum has developed some nice low profile 3D printed bezels and encoders, including the laser engraved button caps.
The overall depth of the encoder + bezel is 0,8mm, which is very nice for Air Manager Instruments, thé panel itself can now be placed as close as possible from the computer screen, the encoder are firmly attached and the bezels and engraved buttons add a very nice and realistic finishing touch.
http://www.aircockpit.com/viewtopic.php ... l&start=20
(Scroll down through the topic to see the bezel in action)

Since he is a former electronic guy, he designed a printed circuitry to adapt the encoder, for those using an IOCard and SIOC from the Spanish site Opencockpit

I have ordered a bunch of them (encoder, bezel and buttons) for testing and am pleased to say that the plain encoders without the special adapter circuitry is working perfectly with an Arduino and AM 3.0

Highly recommended for those who don’t have a 3D printer.

http://fabien.deheegher.free.fr/FD/cat/ ... /index.htm

Jacques

Re: 3D printed bezels

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 8:57 am
by jph
old topic, but if looking for generic (and some speciality and some totally amazing) STL files look at 'thingyverse' - for example - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2690541

The difficult thing can sometimes be actually finding 'things' as there are so many excellent 'things' .
you can try searches like 737, 172, airbus, and you will get stacks of really good stuff !. A hell of a lot of this stuff can be repurposed.

Absolutely brilliant site.
Enjoy.