60 Watt Infrared Co2 Laser Cutter!

[RAFleischman]

I tried contacting Avantcard about purchasing the design of their 1/200 scale ship railings, I never received a response. I wish you luck, it is a nice design.

russ...

[adder]

Looks like you may have cornered a popular area of this hobby. One question tho, which I have searched google for but had no luck. What are 'frames' that you mentioned in your opening post ? I realise this maybe a dumb newbie question but that's what I am

[SCEtoAUX]

Frames for a ship model to help shape the hull, and bulkhead frames for an aircraft model to help shape the fuselage. The more precise the better the final shape.

[SJPONeill]

If there is one kit that needs prominent after-market laser-cut 3D 'bolts' it is the Heinkel111 Jules Verne Nautilus @ Ecardmodels...

[B-Manic]

Originally Posted by adder

Looks like you may have cornered a popular area of this hobby. One question tho, which I have searched google for but had no luck. What are 'frames' that you mentioned in your opening post ? I realise this maybe a dumb newbie question but that's what I am

frames = formers

Good luck with the business venture Ron. It sounds like you and Chris have a great deal of potential customers lined up. I look forward to purchasing some ship parts from you myself.

[Ron0909]

Hi Guys,
Thank you once again for the myriad of suggestions. They are all very helpful! Thank you as well for the well wishes
I left a note on Avantcard's website. I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed in hope that I get a response. Gosh...I haven't ordered a printed kit in some time! I figured what the heck..and ordered the KW Cartoon Model Ju-87 along with the Draf Model laser cut frames/formers. Cjwalas (our resident Stuka expert) did a bang up job comparing the KW Cartoon Model Ju-87 B2/R2 and the GPM model of the same aircraft Comparison: GPM vs KW; JU-87B Stuka Now if only I could light a small fire under a certain Dr.'s bum to release his version of the Ju-87! I also ordered the frames for the MP Model / Models by Marek Fokker B.II manufactured by Answer. That should give me a good standard to go by as they are 2 of the 'big 3'. I'll fill y'all in when they arrive

Talk soon
Ron

[Ron0909]

Finally here and ready to Burn, Baby Burn! The laser finally arrived this past Tuesday. I had no idea it was this size! The tube itself is a water cooled 60 watt Co2 laser that is almost 5 feet long. That flex tube joining the filtration system is 4" in diameter so you can get an idea how big this thing is! Looking inside on top of the honeycomb table is one of the rotary devices that came with it. It's meant for bottles, glasses etc... basically any cylindrical object. Tomorrow will be the test day. I'll be picking up 5 gallons or so of distilled water for the cooling which gets pumped in continuously during use. It's supposedly absolutely critical to get the mirrors all aligned perfectly by aiming and blasting a small dot at each of the mirror locations on a piece of paper and then finally on the bed. I have some 3/8 inch acrylic to play with so we'll see what happens. A single pass should be able to cut it and polish the edges with ease.
The frames will be started next week! I have found the correct 1mm stock that is identical to all of the big name model publishers. It was like pulling teeth to find a place to supply it with prices varying from the very reasonable to the very insane. It's amazing how some folks have no qualms trying to fleece people and make 700% on everything! Chris, if you're watchin', the samples will be goin' out soon. Stock is coming up from NY and then we get crackin! The other thing I wanted to mention is that I actually bought a real copy of Corel Graphics suite as this laser will work directly from it. All cutting
is done from vector with engraving done from both raster and vector. This is a nice feature as most of our designers use either Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator.

Thats the end of my rambling! Please excuse me as I'm really excited about this! I'll post pics of the first cuts and maybe a video if anyone is interested

Talk soon!
Ron

[willygoat]

Nice! Can't wait to see what you make.

[Ron0909]

Hi all!
If anyone is interested, here is a video of my first attempt at former cutting. There was a bit of charring the first time around so I tried it again at a lower power setting and higher travel speed. It was still charred and I couldn't figure out why as my trial cuts were amazing. Sure enough the damn cats had chewed through the compressor hose! Air is blown across the path of the cut to blow detritus out of the way, blow out flame etc. Cuts look much finer with the air assist! Anyways..here it is.. Marek's Bf-109 formers on 1.3 mm cardboard burning away. I have a mountain of old board so maybe I can get it right! Unfortunately it's over 11mb so I posted it up on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

or if you want to waste bandwidth and download it
http://burnedofferings.com/images/mymovie.mp4

Talk soon!
Ron

[cmdr199212]

that is so stinkin cool!! I definitely want to get the frames cut for my beast of a B-1B!!