Laser Cutting -2

by John

I have been using my laser cutter for a couple of weeks.

And I feel that the early frustrations and mistakes of using a new technology are settling down into a more productive stage.

Thankfully, I have some experience with G coding, and while not essential for using the Lightburn software, it has been an advantage. Lightburn automatically generates the G codes which control the Falcon2 cutter, but when things go wrong the solution for me has been to examine the G codes. Invariably the mistakes have been of my own making, due to misusing the Lightburn software. (RTFM you idiot!).

I have now made several hundred parts for my HMS Bellerophon build, with quite a few more yet to come.

Some of the parts made so far. The sticky tape is to stop the parts falling out of the parent sheet during storage. At that stage I had not learned how to add tabs.
This lot, in 1.5mm plywood, took about 15″ to cut after several hours of computer preparation of the drawing files. By this stage I had learned about tabs, and sticky tape not required.

Then I tried a combination of partial depth cutting, plus full depth cutting….

These are 3mm wide ships planks, cut about half way through 0.6mm Huon pine. The 120mm x 45mmslab of planks was then fully cut. In future I will add marks to resemble the top of trenails, and to mark staggered ends of planks. But one thing at a time!
The little semi cylindrical structures sitting on the prow of the Bellerophon are actually dunnies for the crew. They overhang the sides presumably so the products drop straight into the ocean. The plans call for the planks to be glued individually, but I thought that I would try a quicker neater method using the slab of planks pictured above.
So I cut off a piece of the planks, soaked it in warm water for a few minutes, then bent it around an appropriately sized cylinder and let it dry overnight. It retained its cylindrical shape. I had tried to bend it without soaking, but it just snapped along the cuts. Later I made 2 more of these, cut to the correct length, and used them as pictured in the photo before this one.

I just love how new technology opens up a myriad of possibilities.