So... since I have had a set of plans in .dwg format for the old Airtronics 'Grand Esprit' sailplane, I decided to edit them and make up sheets with ribs and other parts on them. I made the sheets to 4" X 18" size as my laser only cuts up to 20" long, and I can cut 36" sheets in half so this makes a good lay-out size for me. Today, I had a bit of time and cut a couple of sheets worth, and I think they turned out great I did the lettering as 'cut' instead of scan as it is much faster. Settings in RDWorks were minimum, 13 maximum at 15 100mms for the letters and minimum 55 maximum 60 at 70mms for the cuts.

SteveT.

Even went to the trouble to stencil the parts. Laser cutters can write stuff, too. But time consuming, eh?

I had first set it to 'scan' engrave, and yes, that was time consuming, so, set it to 'cut' and turned the power down and it was vert fast.

SteveT.

I got the rest of the balsa ribs cut, but I have no 1/8" ply for the root ribs and the first three ribs and the only dealer around here that carries it had only one very warped sheet, so will have to order some


SteveT.

Ouch. That's gonna be a lot of gluing, Steve.

Just two wings..

SteveT,

So.. I was finally able to get some 1/8" 3 Ply plywood, and cut some more parts for my Grand Esprit I want to build. The 3 ply cut great, my only problem is that I can't cut the full length sides so I had to put some 'finger joints in the sides and join them together. Once I put a thin piece of ply on the inside, I feel they will be plenty strong.

One thing though, I goofed and forgot to make the text in blue color, so it was black which in RDWorks I have set as a 'cut' color (blue engrave), so i didn't realize it cut the letters/numbers as I walked around to my building table to get some other sheets of wood ready for cutting. If you look close in the first pic you can see a couple of the 'Ws' that got cut out..

SteveT.