Ron Gray Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 @Mark Turner 12Yes I have produced a set of formers and ribs ready for laser cutting for Peter Miller's 049er, didn't bother with 3rd party software, just used Lightburn which worked very well (using scanned images from the full size plans). I'm still looking at raster to vector software to find one that is best suited (and either free, like Inkscape or 'cheap') to the process of converting really poor raster images! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Turner 12 Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 I’d better have a look at lightburn as I’m still using laser grbl which also works well but sounds like less feature than lightburn Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 I did look at Laser GRBL (as it was free!) but am more than happy with Lightburn. I would like to try Inkscape but it won't yet run on my Mac (as I'm running Ventura 13), hopefully they will fix it soon. Meanwhile I'm merrily testing offerings I can find that will give me raster to vector conversions with a smoothing function (as per Corel Draw, but that is too expensive!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Another excellent ITAT session last night, unfortunately my internet connection went down just after 8 so I missed the end of it but will catch up when Andy posts the recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Symons - BMFA Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 2 hours ago, Ron Gray said: Another excellent ITAT session last night, unfortunately my internet connection went down just after 8 so I missed the end of it but will catch up when Andy posts the recording. It was live streamed so is there immediately. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 A friend wanted a couple of foam model stands made so I reverse engineered the typical EVA ones and did a bit of lasering 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Fairgrieve Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 How many passes was that @Ron Gray? Looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 One pass Kev! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 (edited) During the last ITAT session a few comments were made about how the power of diode lasers is exaggerated and that when they cut they can't cut square as the light beam spreads out when passing through the material. This close up hopefully shows that diode lasers can do the job very neatly (albeit slower than a more powerful CO2 laser). Edited February 11, 2023 by Ron Gray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrunner Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 They look really good Ron, I didn't know you could cut foam with laser cutter. Looks like a nice Colchester in the background too👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 Before I tried to cut the EVA I made sure that in doing so it wasn’t going to produce nasty gases! Having confirmed that it’s ok to laser it was then just a case of carrying out a material test to determine the best speed / power combo. Well spotted, it’s a Colchester Student 1800, a lovely bit of kit that I no longer use on a regular basis! There is also an old Myford 7 with tri-lever head that is gathering dust! I really do need to sort out and sell these bits of ‘heavy’ machinery as my metalworking days are over, and for what I need for model building a smaller lathe will suffice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Bowers Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 Interesting. I've been trying to aquire a stand like that however they are unobtainable right now. Where did you source the EVA please, as I've only been able to find it in 10 mm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 Funnily enough, since I made these I've been asked for some from other club members! PM me if you're interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Ron, what method do you use to convert pdf plans into Gcode files? Currently I use Inkscape to display the pdf then trace over the item to be cut using the Bezier trace tool. Once I have a rough shape I then nudge the resulting closed loop into the required outline using the Edit path by nodes tool. Then the required shape is converted into a line path which can then be converted into Gcode using the inbuilt J Tech photonics extension. All this take considerable time so would appreciate if a faster method of scanning an outline can be used. As for the cutting software I currently use LaserGRBL which has a very simple interface to the cutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 @Andy JoyceIt really does depend on the quality of the PDF to start with! In a lot of cases (if I've scanned a plan myself) I just take it straight into Lightburn then adjust the image (mainly increase the brightness) and then us ether trace facility. This is pretty good and will leave me with a 'drawing' that has 2 lines, one of other outer edge of a line and one for the inner so I just delete either of the 2. Finally I check the dimension and re-scale it if necessary based on the actual drawn dimension on the plan. Where I've scanned the plan it tends to be a quick process but if the PDF is a poor one then I'll used other software first (Inkscape, Super Vectoriser Pro) as they tend to have a bit more power to clean the image up. I know that Corel Draw is very good at importing PDFs and then tracing the lines using the smoothing tool to get neat finished lines but that software is expensive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted March 5, 2023 Share Posted March 5, 2023 (edited) Came across a problem, I’m going to be replacing the oleos on my new FMS Viper 90mm as the OEM ones are made from very soft aluminium and are prone to bending. My flying buddy Mark, who is an excellent pilot and has 100 flights with his, changed the oleos for JP ones but the snag is that they only accept 55mm dia wheels, the FMS ones are 60mm. So, being a cheap skate I cut them down using my laser cutter! Firstly I made a jig from 14mm thick pine, who said diode lasers aren’t powerful? https://youtube.com/shorts/aJtZL53y7Ws?feature=share The wheel was then placed in the jig Then the tyre was cut down to suit, sorted! Edited March 5, 2023 by Ron Gray 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu knowles Posted March 5, 2023 Share Posted March 5, 2023 I like your thinking Ron, Excellent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Video comes up as private when I try to watch it… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Try this one, it’s not very long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 I can't resist a challenge! My flying buddy Mark joked that the Goodyear tyre logo was missing, not any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hazell 1 Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Oh my oh my. This looks too addictive by half! And a source of income should you have the inclination! I'm super duper uber impressed! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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