yojoelay

Hi,

Some time ago I purchased plans, canopy, landing gear etc to build an Extra 300s that was featured in Airborne Magazine (Australia).

I was going to cut everything myself but haven't got around to buying a saw, sander etc and setting up my workshop. Yesterday was my birthday and I got carte blanche to go buy some modelling gear - these opportunities don't come along every day so I'm in a hurry to find someone who can cut it for me.

I'm assuming I'll need someone in Australia because most American kit cutters wouldn't have the files but really I don't know how the kit cutting industry works - maybe someone in the US can get the files and do a short kit for me?

Here is a link to the construction article from Airborne Magazine.

http://www.airbornemagazine.com.au/artExtra.htm

All assistance is appreciated.

Joel

CoosBayLumber

My Feedback: (1)

About two years ago, yet a similar inquiery was placed here. The viewer (after months) found a firm in Sidney or Melbourne, (or perhaps Alice Springs?) that could handle the project. Provided the viewer did the files in CAD and provided the materials.

I would suggest that you go back into the archives here and locate who that may have been. I think wood in your area is cheaper than in USA now, add to that shipping and it seems best to keep everything near to home then.

Wm.

Krener

Joel,
I have tried to find a cutting service here in Oz, but haven't had alot of luck, and what luck I did have was so ridiculously expensive I could have bought 5 ARFs
One things for sure, there are no kit cutters in Alice Springs.
Aside from the locals at the RC club that is

Hope you find one cause I gave up on the idea.

Cheers

yojoelay

Right, If I have any luck I'll let you know. I did ask my LHS here in Brisbane - who are generally very good - and he looked at me like I had two heads. I don't recall seeing a kit cutter advertised in an Australian magazine.

I'll pull the plans out and have a look, but from memory they have a fairly 'hand drawn' look to them.

If it gets too hard then maybe it's time to make those tool investments.

Joel

kdc

Real aeromodellers build their own planes from scratch.
Very few tools are needed to produce your own kit, a scalpel, some sort of fretsaw ( hand or electric ) maybe a drill and a sanding block preferably of the Permagrit kind. Read up about scratch building and do it yourself.

yojoelay

Thanks for the tip kdc, unfortunately I'm spending too much time in the sun to be cooped up in a tiny workshop being a miserable, whining Brit. So, I'll have to fake it.

In the meantime any tips on how to get this kit cut while my workshop isn't set up to my satisfaction for a full scratch build are welcome.

Joel

SystemsTesta

Joel,

I've just started talking to Dave Brown from Lithgow (I think) regarding cutting some parts for me, although he hasn't done any work for me yet he seems like the right man. He has a 25w laser cutter with a 1200 x 1200 bed, capable of cutting up to 1mm in aircraft birch ply, 6mm in Hoop pine ply and 12mm in balsa. He supplies all materials and will provide a quote once everything is set up for cutting.

As with everything though there is a catch, his preference is for you to provide the plans in AutoCad R14DXF format, and he can only cut lines, circles and arcs.... "elispes behave badly, splines and beizer curves have to be converted over to arcs"....I'm currently trying to ocnvert a pdf plan into the correct format for him but I'm experiencing some problems. I imported the pdf into Corel Draw and then saved it from there into the AutoCad R14DXF format, unfortunately though this conversion contained some splines. I've been searching through the RCU archives trying to figure out how to convert the pdf without splines but as yet I've had nojoy (I'm new to the CAD game).

I've been told that Dave will take paper plans, however he then has to scan them and trace the parts into his desired CAD format, and this may take a fair while due to back orders (12 months).

Contact details are;

Dave Brown

[email protected]

Hope this helps, if anyone can help me with converting a pdf into R14DXF without splines I would appreciate it, for that matter how do I know if I have splines in the first place ???

Regards.....

Hutch

Campy

My Feedback: (1)

I realize you want a kit cutter in OZ, however, many US kit cutters will use your plans and do the conversion into CAD for a nominal charge. Might be worth checking out,

yojoelay

Hutch, Campy,

Thanks for that - I'll look Dave up and report back for anyone following along.

All the best,

Joel

yojoelay

Hi guys,

Last week I sent a note to Dave and got a reply very quickly. He thought he had the files to cut and Extra and he's checking them over then working up a price to do a short kit. I'm hoping to hear back soon.

Joel

VeeAte

How do you mean "splines" ?
Where the straight line is offset every so often because the plan is slightly off centre?
-______

like that?

SystemsTesta

A spline is a smooth curve that passes through or near a given set of points, in AutoCad you can control how smooth the curve is by adjusting certain parameters. I'm pretty sure that Browny's machine runs on G-code and can't handle the mathematical calcs behind a spline and therefore doesn't do well at cutting them. Anyway I've learnt a lot over the past few months and have moved on a bit since my last post, I'm now putting the finishing touches on a 90fs size P-51 that I have been modifying from an existing plan.

Hope all is well over in the West

Regards......Hutch

VeeAte

Ahhh I see what you mean.
I am not very good with Cad myself. Thats where my ex gf comes in handy.
Architect so she hammers stuff out for me in AutoCad.

I am about to give plan building a go. I hope I can complete at least one plane in my lifetime haha.

Thanks SystemsTesta. You got a link to your P51 build?

SystemsTesta

Sorry the P-51 hasn't hit the boards yet, it only exists in AutoCad, but I'm hoping to have the design finished shortly and then commence building. The basis of my design comes from a plan that I got from a certain Aussie mag, the quality though was terrible, centre lines were not straight and in some instances the ribs and formers were way off. I have essentially re-drafted the whole thing plus incorporated a few mods for a set of Robart main and tail retracts and basically tidied the whole thing up so that it is accurate. once finished I hope to send it off for cutting and will try to start a build thread when that happens.

VeeAte

Ah ok. Sweet

I will keep an eye out for the build thread. [sm=49_49.gif]

yojoelay

I still haven't heard anything back from Dave since April, despite sending a few follow up emails. Will send another note next week and see if we get anywhere.

VeeAte

I emailed him last night and he emailed me this morning.

Maybe his spam filter is stopping mail coming from your email address??

Sometimes happens if you have a hotmail account etc.

SystemsTesta

I suspect he is a bit busy this weekend with the old timers "coota cup", I think that he is an organiser !!!

VeeAte

Ahhh cool.

I can understand that

yojoelay

Fair point, will try a few alternatives.

Thanks,

Joel

SystemsTesta

Joel,

if Dave can't meet your schedule try Paul Rose at SparcLaser www.sparclaser.com.au he may be able to help. Paul may not have an Extra plan though and from my current experience this is where the heartache and time goes. The P-51 plan that I purchased from Airborne had numerous drafting errors and would have resulted in much frustration if I had tried to cut parts and build from it. I have now pretty well re-drafted the entire plan using AutoCad, I've been going at it for about three weeks now and I still have a way to go. Mind you I knew nothing about AutoCad before I started and have modified the plan somewhat to take a set of Robart main and tail retracts, I'm also in the process of adding build tabs to all of the ribs to make it a little easier to assemble and get the desired washout in.

Regards ...Hutch

yojoelay

Thanks Hutch, I might give him a try.

Will keep you all posted.