Marine Dashboard

[edcoleman]

OK, this isn't really shopbot specific, but I know there's alot of boat people on the board. I've got a client who wants to redo the dashboard on his fiberglass boat and I of course said "sure I can help you with that". Well, I thought he wanted a simple flat panel with a couple of holes cut for gauges and switches. Turns out he wants to replace his current curved dash panels. What is there now is a faux burl wood plastic. I've done some web searches for materials and haven't found anything that quite fits the bill. Any suggestions??

PS: He also added "gee it would be nice if we could backlight lables for the switches..."

[billp]

Ed,
If the boat company is still in business you might find out if you could buy the same material they used originally. If not you'll probably have to go the veneer route and see if you can't get the original off of his boat and use it as a template for a duplicate. Even some foreign car companies use these veneers for their dash boards (i.e Jaguar, etc.)
There are thousands of veneer suppliers all over the web so you should be able to find a reasonably close match.
Since you already have a laser, I would think that would be the tool of choice for getting a clean, tight cut in the veneer....

[edcoleman]

Bill:

Thanks for the reply. I was planning on the laser for the eventual cutting rather than the 'bot.

I may have hit upon an interesting solution: a combination of veneer and cast acrylic. I recall being introduced to the edge lighting effects of cast acrylic at your camps and was thinking "what if I use a veneer on top of the acrylic?"

That might give me a nice, heat formable substrate which will also allow for backlighting. hmmmm. time for some experimentation...

-Ed

[oddcoach]

The acrylic will work as a backer,but i wouldn't glue the veneer to it. I would lay up several layers of veneer and alternate the grain. Then just place the 2 separate pieces in the boat. I think the veneer would split if glued directly to the plastic, you have to allow for expansion and contraction
John