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Showing posts from August, 2024

Optimizing the Trigger Piston Design

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  Optimizing the design.... or more appropriately, optimizing the manufacturing process in design. In the picture, the above is a one-piece clone "piston" of the 2 stage trigger of an F-16. It's lathed on a mini-lathe, out of an OD=8mm brass. First, it has to be turned down to OD=7.5mm, then, the middle section has to be turned down to 4.5mm, then one end has to be drilled with an D=1/8" hole. This whole thing has approximately the same dimensions as the real one. The blunt nose section's precise shape is not important. The original is a circular dome (plastic injection molded part). But, mine is... well, filed on a lathe. The curve? I have no idea... well, about there. But... if you ain't got a lathe.... that is going to be very difficult to make. Just drilling a D=1/8" on an D=4mm hole is going to make you sweat. Any deviation on the center finding (or even wandering of the drill bit) will make it very obvious on these small diameter, thin walled part....

F-16 blk 50 Central Pedestal

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 I added a chopped off blk 50 central pedestal. This is a chopped off central pedestal. The 3D model came from the "ancient" Hempstick site, as one of the forum goers stated. This is a VR pit. I call it an Augmented VR pit (AVRPit). The panels are only there to provide positions and rigidity for knobs, switches and buttons. They don't even need to look good. But because I could, I will make them look good. I won't even bother putting in instruments like HSI etc. The visuals are provided by the VR goggle. All I need is the HDG, and Heading knobs, the barometric knob, and the fuel selection knobs, etc. I will just leave the holes uncovered... empty. Maybe I will put some color pictures in them so they don't look funny. Nevertheless, this pit is designed to be adjustable, and could be torn down, and reconfigured for PS5 Gran Turismo, and regular PC gaming with keyboard/mouse. I have the other two panels instead of the F-16 front panel too. The front panel could be qu...