RC India

After looking for almost 1 yr on internet for CNC Foam cutting machine in mumbai, finally I found Laser marking machine in my area, Airoli and a Laser cutting Machine in Mhape, Navi Mumbai again close to my area  {:)} {:)} {:)}!!!!!!!

2 days back I found a company called Scantec laser cutting company in Mhape, called them up and asked them about their cutting machine. Person on the other side answered all my queries  :salute:, like it is CNC machine with bed of around 8X6 fts!!!!! Their main job is to cut metal sheets using Laser CNC machine. They also cut different thickness ply, used for some dye purpose. I asked them if it can cut foam or thermocol, then he advised me to visit his unit with sample for testing purpose, as he never did so. But regularly cut metal and ply!!!!!

Today I visited them and saw their machine it was big, with around mentioned bed and was cutting 3mm metal sheet with pretty good speed and precision. But was disappointed cause it may burn my foam   :banghead: :banghead:!!!!!! I show them my sample, it was laminated 5 mm foam purchased from Sai long back. They also had one more small machine but will be functional in 2-3days and might help. So will visit next weekend also!!!!
Meanwhile we decided to try 5mm laminated sheet on existing big machine, and results were surprising, they set pwr lvl to min and cut my foam and wow!!!!! I got perfect square shape. Pic attached!!!!
They also show me 12mm ply which was cut for some dye, it was perfect!!!! So if anyone wants to cut Balsa Kit in Mumbai then we have at least one source in Mumbai!!!!!

For me only issue is I have drawings in PDF and can be converted to coral draw, as I am good in it, but those people require design in Autocad (dxf or dwg). Importing coral file into autocad will create multiple node in existing vector drawing and will slow the machine and curvature may not be  in perfect shape!!!!
So now I am looking for good cdr to dwg, dxf converter!!!! Any idea  ???

About cost little expensive, they said Rs 60/min for big machine!!!! square shown in picture took around 3 sec to cut, and almost 2”x2”. So I guess it will be costlier than sheet of biofoam!!!! We all laugh at this remark  :giggle: :giggle:!!!! But they said that once their small machine is functional they will work out something. Grt people!!!!!!!  :bow:

There is one more source in Goregoan Mumbai, last week I contact Mr. Aejaz (http://www.centrumlaser.com/index.htm). He is into Laser engraving and told me that he regularly cut thermocol and all that …but never visited this guy and yes he use Corel Draw for cutting!!!! So if anyone staying close can contact him for foam cutting.

Sandeep also found some guy in Thane area, but I think, didn’t get chance to visit him….will contact him and will try to visit this guy as well!!!!
Pretty long post I am tired now!!!! But wanted to share this info!!!!

Thanx Ashish!!..Great find man!!do these guys also have hotwire cnc so that we can get our airfoiled wings cut?...thanx for the goregaon find, its great for scratch builders like us!!1:-)

found some sites which give dxf dwg for free check it out

http://plans.aerofred.com/cat5.htm

http://plans.aerofred.com/cat4.htm

 :salute: :salute: :salute:

just while checking on laser cut balsa ......

people have suggested that not to go for laser cut balsa kits...... instead  go for die-cut balsa...

REASON : laser burns the cellulose from the wood hence making it hard around the edges.... it looses its flexible characteristics and gets brittle.........

HARD THINGS BREAK FASTER......

But it is only be the edge that would become brittle, if at all. Virtually all models use laser cutting nowadays. Die cutting is just not viable for small quantities or one offs.

i do agree!!!!

Thanks Vish, for those links!!!

Anyways it is just an option i found in my area and if it is cost effective i will cut foam only!!!!
and of course some circular motor mount as well!!!

probably this weekend i am planning to visit those guys again and if possible will try to cut 28" Su37. (http://rc.tomhe.net/su-37 dxf is available on this site!!!)

Ashish

R/C Vish,
To get rid of burned brown color cellulose.. simple sand with very light hands to remove the brown composition....

Sandeep

This a debatable topic like Canon-Nikon saga. You can always rub-off the charred balsa./Ply with fine sand paper and some IPA.
Laser cut is such a bliss for scratch building where you can do all the design in CAD, fit the parts and even render the final finished look! And if you had put all the params correct (esp the thickness) all the parts are guaranteed to fit together like a charm.

Anyway, when you glue parts together, the adhesive should be soaked  by the medium not just at the contact surface but little further. If not, you are anyway going to have a weak bond.

Due to some reason i couldnt visit Amby Vally!!!!  :( :banghead:

so decided to go for laser cutting!!! i went to those guys again today in the afternoon, with DXF file downloaded from the above link, it is SU-37 with 28" wingspan and around 40" length. But after opening it in Autocad 2006, operator realize that there are multiple layers, ie same line is drawn multiple times so spend lot of time in editing and finalizing the cutting drawing. after that we realize that sheet is not big enough for the whole wing then we had to split complete horizontal wing body into 2!!! and since i had taken only sheet we cant cut rest of the parts!!!!!

pls find pictures below, cuts were smooth and great i am really very happy!!  {:)} {:)}
only issue was design was for 6mm thick foam, and my biofoam was around 4.5-5mm thick, so need to use some filler in the joints!!!!

see the picture it is huge!!!!

i also took 3 mm board used in advertising and 3mm balsa strip to cut some motor mounts, and look at it, i cut almost 8 out of each!! so i now hav total 16 motor mounts with me, so for next plane no messy motor mounts!!!!

abt cost, just guess!!!! it took only 5 min to cut complete horizontal wing out on single sheet, shown in picture @ Rs 12/ min so only Rs 60!!!! motor mount took little longer time b'coz board sheet was thick, so i he asked for Rs 160 in total but i paid Rs200 to the operator b'coz he took lot of efforts to finalize drawing!!

and of course it is not ad for any Mobile company!!!!!

Motor Mounts

this is a one of the most common problem when you covert a PDF file to AutoCad DXF/DWG. I am actually lookng for tool/Filter to do the cleanup job. Its better you prepare the file before as you were lucky they did not charge :RS: 12/min on what time they spent on editing these lines.

Could you please tell what power/Speed they used ? I almost reached the upper limit of speed for 3mm Balsa and still ended up with very minor 'Over Burn'.

Well are you sure 3mm Balsa would be fine  for Motor Mount ? People usually use Lite Ply or at least locally available 'Marine Ply' for motor mount.

Awesome work.Planes should definitely be easier with this.

HI Ujjwaana,

i downloaded DXF file from above link and was thinking that it would be original file and should not have any issue!!!

i also face same issue, u mentioned above, while importing pdf files in CorelDraw!!!!

abt speed, it is pretty old machine and configured on Win 98. abt pwr adjustment it can not be done in the software, only hardware so virtually cant be controlled.

the process they follow is they use some DOS base utility, Desknc to cut. 1st they draw in autocad, then convert this file into .dnc file using Deskam 2000 and use Desknc dos base software to cut!!!! so abt speed, this software have speed like 150, 55, 30 or 15, this can be set, i am not sure abt unit!!!!
foam was cut on 55, 3mm board on 30, and we cut balsa on 15 but i think 30 will do fir balsa.

now i am looking for some utility so that i can directly convert Corel file to DNC so that i will have full control over drawing and dont have to go through Autocad!!!!!

what software have u used to cutting!!!

Ashish

awesome bhaiya...  :salute: {:)}

Ashish, most of people just convert the PDF/Scanned images to DXF files and for 'Curve fitting', most of the time these converters would generate multiple overlapping lines, later which create havoc on Balsa/Ply if not removed. Wonder why AutoDesk does not provide a reliable tool for PDF-DXF/DWG conversion.

The Laser cutter guy I go to uses Ez-Laser cutting machines:
http://www.ezlaserdesigns.com/

They install as a 'Plotter' machine and provide option to set Speed/Power. They also had a separate UI/Application to set these parameter as well had a Control Panel on the controller for the same (real time override)

here is a another 1

http://www.willingtons.com/mymac/Plans_Download.htm