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Laser Cutters and glue joints?

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Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
1,508
Location
Glendale, CA
Hello All,

I have a need for a laser cutter for my home business and need a large one to cut some pelican case foam inserts as well as other items. There are many options online and I use to run a very large laser cutter at my work and loved it. Min size that will work for my needs is 600mm x 900mm cut area, but there are larger machines out there and I am beginning to consider a larger machine for aviation purposes as well. My one concern is when a piece of wood is cut the ends are charred a bit and curious how that would affect a wood joint on a wooden airframe. Would I need to sand the char away thus making a CNC router the preferred method? I also have plans for a APEV Demoichelle and have the wing done in Solidworks. If I step up to the next size machine it will have enough area to cut a full size rib. Also I can see myself using it to Laser etch text in an anodized panel with placards and such. I could also cut the few wood doublers required as well. Or etch placards that can be riveted or glued in place. Needless to say I always found a use for the machine at work.

Oh and in regards to the Demoichelle, I never built it since finding the spars in the USA was impossible. I got a quote years ago to extrude them here as I already have an extrusion vendor who do some custom extrusions I designed for my camera mounts. I might consider doing a run of spars to support USA builders of the APEV airframes.

Thoughts?
 
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