Ham radio instrument panel

My husband is a volunteer member of the NYS emergency response team. He’s currently building a compact ham radio he can take on the road.

This pile of bits needed an instrument panel. Glowforge to the rescue.

I was handed this cardboard mockup.

IMG_4579

Inkscape to the rescue. A lot of measuring and a lot of guides, and 3 draft versions later, we have a winner.

Call sign is blurred. I used medium proofgrade cherry ply.

panel n2v

Miraculously everything fits.

radio panel bits

He’s currently working on connecting everything to the actual radio part, and making it fit in this frame, which fits in a rolling tote. The bottom part of the frame will also hold the batteries.

Clearly, this needs more work on his part, but my work is done!

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That turned out great!

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Fine job on that! :kissing_heart: :ok_hand:

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so cool!

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Stuff like that is so cool…and fun. I love it!

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Thanks, @rvogt , @PrintToLaser , @pubultrastar , @Xabbess !

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That turned out great!

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That is spectacular!! And I can see others needing/wanting this for similar purposes. Fantastic job to both of you!

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This is great! I’m sure it is very satisfying to see your part of the project turn out so well.

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Thanks @grottfam and @ellencadwell !
You bet @LauraZM !

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That’s something that your husband can brag about how great his wife is. Beautiful job.

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Great practical cut!

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I love how people keep pushing Inkscape beyond it’s intended use. Nice job.

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Thanks! You’re probably right.

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Isn’t that what it is for???
Actually, I may have to reinstall it. Can’t seem to find the toggle to hide the guides.

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WHAT? this is SO cool! Your husband being a volunteer HAM and also your build looks wonderful!

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Very nice, thank you for sharing. How did you learn Inkscape. I have been playing around with it and have learned a few things, but would like to be able to design from scratch. Being able to design from scratch is the key to being productive on my Glowforge.

Thank you

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Logos by Nick is a great resource for Inkscape.

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Any tool is for whatever you can use it for but Inkscape was really designed to be an art program and if you find yourself doing a lot of projects like this you’ll come to appreciate some kind of CAD as it will make getting dimensions right so much easier.
And as I always say,use what you know so if you only do dimension work once in a while then Inkscape is perfect.

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Logos by Nick is the best resource. After crashing around for awhile, I invested in his master class- well worth it.

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