Laser cutter for rc planes

[Userofmuchtape&glue]

Hi all. I am investigating buying a laser cutter or similar to cut my own designs possibly for sale, I would be cutting 3-10mm foam mostly Depron style stuff with no paper covering on it, can anyone advise as to the easiest, fastest and most accurate way to cut foam from a cad file? Laser? Router? Needle!?

Thanks!
Abe

 

[mrjdstewart]

foam on it's own can be a real challenge with a laser. the one i use had a massive fire because someone was cutting foam and had it to high, and too slow. caught the foam on fire and did serious damage to the laser. with the paper sandwich it seems to make a big diff. i'm sure someone else will chime in but from my limited experience i would be careful.

which ones are you looking at? i have my eye on one but the $8,000 price tag has me hitting the brakes for now. the cheap Chinese lasers don't have the power so you really need to spend some cash if you are going to do it.

another thought, and i have no info on this, but check out the "Rascal" CNC machine that is being built/designed by several community members. might be able to do all you want a fraction of the price.

good luck,

me

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

I have a Glowforge Pro. I love it and use it all the time.

That said, I would not recommend any laser unless you have more use cases than just this one. Lasers are just too expensive to use for just one thing! Now if you want to cut Delran and plywood and ......... then by all means.
There are three ways you can go with a laser. Industrial/pro, with these they will cut and cut and never complain but prices start at around 10K and go up quickly from there.
At the other extreme is the cheep chineseum stuff. If you are a major do-it-yourselfer then this could be your way to go. Good prices but expect to rebuild it right out of the box!
And finally, there are the Prosumer lasers. Still glass tubes like the chineseum but otherwise very good quality for far less than an industrial unit. Right now the only Prosumer units are the three levels of the Glowforge but Dremel should have one by the end of the year.

If you decide to go Glowforge let me know as I can get you a discount and myself a rebate!

 

[Userofmuchtape&glue]

Thanks guys! Yeah, laser is just what popped into my head after seeing flitetests shop, but I'm open to anything else that cuts foam really.

As for the Depron-foamboard thing, I would have to buy cases for ft foamboard and get it posted to Australia which is expensive. I can get 500x1000mm sheets of xps/Depron stuff from hobbyking for $30au and it's not as good structurally as foamboard but it does the job.

Whilst I fiddle around with most things, this project is one I would want to have work fairly well from the get go.

I will look into the rascal cnc and other foam cutting things, short of employing Chinese workers for two dollars a day I'm open to anything!

 

[b-29er]

Just a thought, but if you dont mind slower and louder in exchange for cheaper, you may take a look at some of the needle cutters people around here print off from 3d printers, home depot stock and a few cheap 3d printer components.

 

[Userofmuchtape&glue]

Yeah I have seen a few of those... they look good, but a fair bit of tweaking involved to get them working right! I do like the idea though.