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1watt laser for cutting blue vinyl coating?

bkthomps

Well Known Member
arctic_series.jpg


Who thinks this laser from wicked lasers would actually serve as a good replacement for the soldering iron tehcnique of cutting the plastic away from skins? I was thinking of the reflective quality being obviously bad, but if it can burn a match stick in half........

thoughts???

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html
 
Thoughts???

thoughts???

Ummm... my only thought is also something like "Do Not Look into the Reflected-off-Shiny-Aluminum Laser Beam With Remaining Eye" ? :eek:


Definitely want some seriously industrial-quality laser eye protection goggles when messing around with 1-watt laser.

EDIT: It takes a pretty deliberate effort to put your eye out with a soldering iron, and the soldering iron costs a whole lot less money than the laser and will get the job done quite well. Still, that laser sure has some serious geek-wow-coolness factor to it, and I wouldn't mind owning one myself just for that alone.
 
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good point, it comes w/ protective eyewear- so assuming that is not the issue here, would it harm the aluminum? would the reflected laser be just as dangerous? i have zero clue about lasers, but i have a lot of vinyl to cut when my wings get here
 
Sweet

I don't know about aluminum, but I would love to use that to start my next campfire!
 
Probably would not hurt the aluminum since the beam would be mostly reflected, but I would guess that it might get hot enough to set the vinyl on fire instead of just melting it, which wouldn't be desirable at all.

You would have to ensure that no other people are standing around the hazard area without eye protection too.

The laser beam would probably also be a bit more difficult to cut straight lines since you'd have to guide it by freehand. With the soldering iron, you can just simply zip the tip alongside a metal yardstick to quickly make nice, pretty, straight cuts thru the vinyl.
 
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After taking all the time to make the neat looking stripes on the aluminum during my build then taking many scotchbrite pads to ALL of the surfaces during paint prep.....I would never waste my time cutting off the plastic again.

YMMV, it does look cool though:D
 
After taking all the time to make the neat looking stripes on the aluminum during my build then taking many scotchbrite pads to ALL of the surfaces during paint prep.....I would never waste my time cutting off the plastic again.

YMMV, it does look cool though:D

I laughed out loud reading the warning post....do not look into laser with remaining good eye...good one:D

With that said, as a repeat offender, you are going to go over the entire airplane and scuff it up before you paint so just go ahead and remove the blue plastic now. The longer it stays on the harder it is to remove plus there have been numerous people who discovered corrosion under the blue plastic after they had finished a part and left it on the rack, in the corner, in the rafters for some length of time. On the 10, as with the 7 after I was about 1/2 way through....I'll remove the blue plastic.....and not with a laser;)
 
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Who thinks this laser from wicked lasers would actually serve as a good replacement for the soldering iron tehcnique of cutting the plastic away from skins? I was thinking of the reflective quality being obviously bad, but if it can burn a match stick in half........

thoughts???

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html

That looks like a great unit all right!

However, the soldering iron approach is still much cheaper and you can use the soldering iron for the wiring, whereas the laser is only good for the one job.

But thanks for the data all the same because I am sure that I can eventually come up with some way to use it.
 
Wow, $200 to remove parts of the blue plastic that you will remove anyways just to scuff it all up and paint? Am I the only one that thinks this is a little overboard? (No offense to the OP, just thinking out loud here)...

I mean, one were going to polish their plane, then I could see leaving the plastic on. But if not, why waste time cutting lines in it? :confused:
 
Wow, $200 to remove parts of the blue plastic that you will remove anyways just to scuff it all up and paint? Am I the only one that thinks this is a little overboard? (No offense to the OP, just thinking out loud here)...

I mean, one were going to polish their plane, then I could see leaving the plastic on. But if not, why waste time cutting lines in it? :confused:

trying to find a valid reason to justify buying a toy :D now tell me i'm the only one on THIS board that does that lol
 
I'm no laser expert, but I can't help but think most of the energy from a blue laser would get reflected by the blue plastic, thus not generating much heat. As for cutting the canopy, it's transparent, so you'd probably just end up cutting whatever hppens to be behind it.

To quote my late grandmother: "you're gonna put somebody's eye out with that thing."
 
I have no idea if this would even melt butter but one thing to keep in mind is that on real aerospace quality parts they often won't even allow a laser to be used in fabricating them. I won a compan that fabricates parts for major commercial and military aircraft and laser cutting is prohibited. Waterjet is OK and in fact waterjet cutting was invented by and for the aerospace industry.

Now I doubt that laser would do anything to weaken the aluminum where the plastic is but why bother. I prefer just to strip the stuff off anyway as I'm going to sand and scuff the surface for paint prep anyway.
 
trying to find a valid reason to justify buying a toy :D now tell me i'm the only one on THIS board that does that lol

You are the only one on THIS board that does that.

HAH!!!! Its a wonder I wasn't struck by lightning right then! :D I'm guilty too what can I say. :eek:
 
Reason

I wouldn't need a valid reason to justify buying one of those lasers as a toy... just a wallet full of spare cash. Unfortunately my wallet is presently pretty short of that commodity.
 
WIFE1.0 and KIDSX2.0

removed ALL blue vinyl except from skins on the entire kit after delivery. I agree with Rick and Dana on this. I have been removing it from the skins as needed. They remarked all parts with sharpies and it took them about two weeks in their spare time. It has helped me out a bunch.
 
removed ALL blue vinyl except from skins on the entire kit after delivery. I agree with Rick and Dana on this. I have been removing it from the skins as needed. They remarked all parts with sharpies and it took them about two weeks in their spare time. It has helped me out a bunch.


I just reiterate, from what experienced builders told me and what I learned form building an RV, for the life of me why in the world would you want to spend the time to iron out the strips, have corrosion happen under the blue ^*^&, I mean plastic;), and when you remove it you will will have nice straight scratch lines from the iron when you are going to rough the heck out of the alum anyway, plus the longer it stays on, the harder it is to get off...sure it looks great showing it to your neighbors but it truly does not affect the final product cosmetically......but then again, I don't need much of a reason to buy a new tool:D

As I have always said from being a repeat offender, keep pounding, you will not experience a better flying airplane than your RV...matter of fact, get out right now and pound a few rivets...or at least think about what you will pound on tomorrow. Hum, but then again it may just be me, but my 10 plans are on the couch next to me.....................:)
 
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