behind the scenes suggestion, Laser cutting

frichard7

Junior Member
Hi,
I've been watching your videos for a couple of months now (all of them!) and the one thing I don't think you have covered is the laser cutting of your kits. I know I'm interested how the laser works when cutting different materials like the that used for the "Batbone" or the wooden "Anycopter", even when it's used for cutting the foam board kits.

It's intriguing to hear David say "I just used the laser to cut it out!" but then not to have an idea of the process behind that. Like his portable ground station, not to mention the casual way he say's "oh, I just used the "CNC" to do the lettering and added color to the lettering..." I want to see that part of the build too!

I'm sure there are many more out there that would like to see this... how about it!

Frichard7
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
I'll second that. I have a vinyl cutter myself so I know the basics of how they work, at least from the software side, but have been giving serious thought to building one of the DIY CNC routing setups. I think the laser is still too expensive for what I want to do but I would love to have one.
 

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
A agree, I'd love to see the laser cutting setup. My wife has a Cricut cutter that she uses for scrapbooking. It's basically a small, 6" x 12" paper/vinyl cutter. I've been investigating the DIY CNC plans out there as well but I've been focusing on getting foam into the air lately.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
A agree, I'd love to see the laser cutting setup. My wife has a Cricut cutter that she uses for scrapbooking. It's basically a small, 6" x 12" paper/vinyl cutter. I've been investigating the DIY CNC plans out there as well but I've been focusing on getting foam into the air lately.
The Cricut is basically the same thing I have except the one I have is 44" wide and unlimited length. Granted, it's a cheaper model (relatively speaking) so it has stepper motors rather than the higher precision servo motors. This forces me to be more careful with the level of detail I can cut. It sounds much worse than it is in practice though, as I have cut some very detailed images, most of the issues are with very small holes and super narrow lines.
 

FloatingFoam

Junior Member
Agreed, it would be interesting to see the CNC and laser work in action. Your choices in CAD software, machines, etc. I think Chad mentioned once that he set Josh Bixler lose with Corel Draw initially?
 

squishy

Pirate ParkFlyer
lol...they would end up teaching everyone how to compete with their budding business, that's not a very good business model...
 

greenninja

Junior Member
yes, can you do a vid on your laser cutter, their business model will be fine as laser cutters are way spendy but i too have a vinyl cutter and its the next step for me. i dont think id turn a laser cutter off if i had one. my mrs would never see me..... all the stuff i could make......

"it's a frickin laser beam maaaaaannnnnnnnn"
 

Kammo

Junior Member
Not that this would happen but, what if they released the CAD files for those that have laser cutters and that person made cutouts for those in there RC community to help out with the hobby. Then the person who cuts them uses the money from the sold cutouts to buy stuff off of FliteTest.com? I know I know, who is left if the world that would be generous and legit enough to do that?? I know these guys are the real deal at flitetest because they preach all they want is for more people to get into the hobby. But remember, without these guys and the funding to them, this hobby would still be dead. It would be great if flitetest could set up trusted "resellers" to do this.
With that being said, I have a DIY CNC and would love to have the CAD files to run these off and recontribute the money back to flitetest to further there expansion and be a part of these awesome peoples mission.
 

Balu

Lurker
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
You can easily use the provided plans to create files for laserprinter or even cad files yourself. All FT PDFs I've seen so far were vector based and could be converted to something usable for lasercutters, etc.

In fact I've cut my Anycopter hub on a campus lasercutter based on the original FT plans.

Having someone else produce and resell the FT planes has exactly one problem you already mention. "Trust". If the reseller does something bad or the quality is comparable to the FT standards or just keeps forgetting to add bbq skewers it will fall back on the FliteTest crew. There's more to this than just cutting foamboard. All the extra parts, logistics and support need to be perfect too.