53 ford truck dash

[Drools]

My friend is restoring an old 53 ford truck. He asked if I can make a dash from Maple or Oak. I can make it if I had some way to transfer the outline of the original dash to a dxf or something. I own AutoCAD and Mach3 but that is all I have for software. How do I get the outline of the dash into AutoCAD so I can export it to LazyCAM and cut it. It would be nice to take a picture and import it but I have not done that before.
Thanks for the help.

[lsalme]

How about using Mach to digitize it. Make a pointed stylus and locate enough periphery points that you can bring the data into Autocad and draw the tangent geometry.

[MrWild]

Make a full sized cardboard template of the dash, then make a mark every so many inches for reference. Heck magic marker it into squares. Give reference numbers every so many squares, then run it through a scanner. I use Photoshop to put the pieces together into a image, then import the image to Autocad.

Once in Autocad, I blow the image up an trace all new lines, circles and curves. Make sure all lines connect if they are for an outline as the dxf you import to a CAM program like Dolphin needs the connected line to make tool paths. From here the gcode produced is uploaded to Mach or EMC

[eloid]

may take alot of time.... to do

[judleroy]

This is what I would try first. Id make a template holes and all from cardboard, plywood, or insulation foam sheets. Make sure it fits well and holes line up. Then using a digital camera take a picture of the object. Make sure you are directly above the template and centerd on the template for the pics. Use a white or atleast solid colored background that contrasts the template color if white. Import your image into autocad.
Then make a point at the longest and widest ends of the template. Measure the distance between points and write them down. As close as possibble make the same measurements on your template. Compare the measurements for proper scaleability by dividing the measurement of your template to the coresponding measurement in cad. If the two numbers you get after dividing are very close then the pic should be scalable, if not try more pics till one is close.Then trace the template with a spline. If you need to you can just draw with arcs, lines, and circles. Then using the scale factor you came up with earlier scale your drawing to the same
size as the real thing. Test the drawing by cutting the drawing on a piece of the same template material. Match to your template and make any minor adjustments needed to match the two. If This doesnt work I'll tell you about the hard way. Judleroy

[Switcher]

Originally Posted by Drools My friend is restoring an old 53 ford truck. He asked if I can make a dash from Maple or Oak. I can make it if I had some way to transfer the outline of the original dash to a dxf or something. I own AutoCAD and Mach3 but that is all I have for software. How do I get the outline of the dash into AutoCAD so I can export it to LazyCAM and cut it. It would be nice to take a picture and import it but I have not done that before. Thanks for the help.

The 1953 F100 that I used to have, the dash was a stamped single piece of steel, with a guage cluster that could be removed.

Are you planning on building the entire dash, or just the gauge cluster?

If just the gauge cluster, that can be removed, then trace by hand.

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by Drools My friend is restoring an old 53 ford truck. He asked if I can make a dash from Maple or Oak. I can make it if I had some way to transfer the outline of the original dash to a dxf or something. I own AutoCAD and Mach3 but that is all I have for software. How do I get the outline of the dash into AutoCAD so I can export it to LazyCAM and cut it. It would be nice to take a picture and import it but I have not done that before. Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by eloid may take alot of time.... to do

I bet you will easily have 10 hours between drawing it and then generating g-code and machining.
He had better be a GOOD friend or have a wallet he is not afraid to open.

I am doing some vinyl for a coworker and I will take a bath on the job, time wise, because he has no idea how much time is involve. Software can only do so much with a small poor image.
Then of course they want it on their schedule. Next time I will charge what it is worth regaudless of who they are.

If it is small emough to measure with a set of calipers and it is mostly circles and line, it could be drawn in cad in a few hours or less. If it is all complex shapes and curves it gets to be real tough.

Mike

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by Drools My friend is restoring an old 53 ford truck. He asked if I can make a dash from Maple or Oak. I can make it if I had some way to transfer the outline of the original dash to a dxf or something. I own AutoCAD and Mach3 but that is all I have for software. How do I get the outline of the dash into AutoCAD so I can export it to LazyCAM and cut it. It would be nice to take a picture and import it but I have not done that before. Thanks for the help.

This web page shows what the dash panel looks like in billet aluminum. Click on the image for a larger version. Note that there are two different gauge sizes. The larger image may be good enough to make a test piece to compare sizes to the original part. You need to get the length and width of the panel and the gauge size information from your friend.

CarveOne

[ger21]

If you can pull the original, and trace it on some paper, you should be able to measure and draw it in a few minutes. Cut a test piece out of mdf, check it, adjust as needed, then cut the final. Provided it looks like the one CarveOne posted.

[maartenlog]

i had to do an dashboard once, after many try's the best way i found is by tracing the original dashboard on paper, scan this in with a scanner and then import this as a background into a CAD program, scale it to the original size and then trace it with poly lines and customize it. mine came out really nice and it took about an halfhour.
sorry for my bad english im from Holland

[Drools]

He took the original dash out and gave it to me to work with. Thank you CarveOne the dashes pictured are exactly the same, shape wise as the dash I have in hand. I know it will take a while to do but you would do the same for your brother if he asked, right...
I'm wrong in calling it a dash, to be more accurate it is just the instrument cluster that sits in the dash.
Thank you for all the ideas, I will try some of them this weekend.

[Switcher]

I can't remember on the 53 F100 I had (been a while), does the backside of the gauge cluster have a contour, or is it flat?

I think the fastest way, would be like suggested already, measure & draw by hand in a cad program. That cluster shouldn't have that many cut-outs.

Get some scrap insulation board, for test cuts, you can up the feedrate on the insulation board, so test cuts won't take that long, then slow it back down on the wood when you get everything tweaked.