Laser Cut Guitar Bracing

How did we ever get by before laser cut fins? 

I once thought laser cut parts only applied to rocket and wooden ship kits.

 

The picture shows the internal bracing of a new design guitar.

Fancy guitar inlays cavities (cutting a well-fitting recess) were once "gouged" out using a Dremel and a dental bit. Lasers now cut the ebony or rosewood fingerboards for inlays.

From a Martin guitar Facebook post:

Where legendary Martin tone and innovation meet. The new GPCE Inception features skeletonized scalloped bracing and sonic channels inside the body for increased resonance and superior tone. Go behind the design with the Martin team to learn more: CLICK HERE

Estes Great Goblin, #9724 Build, Part 5, Two Piece Fins

Mentioned in the last post - 

You should sand and square up the edges. Sand enough just to remove some burnt ash. 

On the left is a fin piece right off the sheet showing the laser cut ash.

On the right is a sanded, squared fin edge.

This shows another angled laser cut. 

On the right the edge was sanded.

This is a root edge TTW tab and doesn't really need sanding like this. I use it to show the laser cut diffused angle. 

You will get a better glue bond when some of the dark brown ash is removed. 

Here's a 90 degree sand. 

Using a sanding block makes it easier to visualize.

Sometimes I'll look at an edge like this to ensure things are square.

Estes Spaceman - Laser Cut Parts?

Here's an odd-ball from the past.
In the 1970s I assembled a few of these. The Spaceman used featherweight recovery. Mine seemed to come in ballistic, probably the reason for the blunt head nose cone.





Hard landings could mean broken arms and legs. From the instructions you can see the simple end-to-end joints.

For the original instructions: CLICK HERE









On Facebook, Dave Combs posted a picture of his Spaceman, using a Jack In The Box head to top it off. The "Jack" head looks great!

Look close at the elbow, shoulder and square base joints. Laser cutting can be great to strengthen designs like this. Now it's a little like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

I don't know which vendor laser cut these Spaceman parts. Searches on the old Semroc website and erockets.biz don't show them.

What the heck?

Well, it's done! It's a Beer Can Pan Flute.
I'm just doing my part to recycle.
Remember Zamfir playing the Pan Flute on the infomercials?
I could be Zam-Beer playing the Can Flute. (Sorry, too easy!)

The eight beer cans make up a Do-Re-Mi diatonic scale.
All are tuned with different levels of water.
These aluminum beer bottles strong, thicker walled than a regular beer can. You can't crush them with your hand. They are easy to ship and light without water in them.

The top picture is the audience view.
I needed the laser cut shelf to raise the upper four notes. Otherwise, my chin would be in the way when blowing into the upper cans.
From left to right on the low level is the Do-Re-Mi-Fa.
Left to right on the upper, higher level is So-La-Ti-Do.

The placement of the can colors was important. I could have went with all blue, but the red cans add interest. The blue cans have twist off caps, the red are pry off caps.
With the just Velcro attachments, it was a little wobbly. 
Why duct tape and rubber bands? More support and it's supposed to look tacky.

I'll start the routine with a serious "From A Distance" with a LOT of reverb, like those Andes Pan Flute recordings. After I establish that you can actually get music out of it, the "Beer Barrel Polka" will kick in for an uptempo, appropriate finish.

What the . . . ?

Can you think about anything you do better because of your rocketry building experience?
Anytime I smooth a caulking bead I know I probably do it better than the average Joe. I've learned technique from forming too many fin fillets in the past.

I've got a new show project in the works. How did rocketry help pull it off?

I called up Carl at RSR, Real Space Rockets. Carl cuts many of the custom parts I use in the Odd'l Rockets kits.
"Carl, I need some special laser cut pieces.
Five pieces of light ply. I'll glue them together."
The pieces were quickly mailed.

I used yellow carpenters glue and clamps.
The edges were sanded and evened up, just like you'd do with rocket fins.
I was surprised that the first attempt at this laser burn was correct. Usually on a strange "one-shot" piece you might have to get a few cuts made before you get it close.

This piece is fairly smooth, I gave it a shot of grey filler/primer and sanded, just like a rocket build.

Here's just a hint of what it will be, how it looked before gluing together and sanding.
More upcoming . . .

Mini Honest John Build Part 6 Laser Cut Fins

At group launches, sometimes you'll see flying models with the burnt laser cut edges under the paint.

The tabs haven't even been sanded off. If the tabs are left on, the root edge gluing surface won't be as strong. The attachment tabs will slightly raise the root edge off the body tube.



You don't have to remove every last trace of the laser burn and hold-down tab. If you sand too far, you've changed the shape of the fins. Just sand enough until the darker brown color is almost gone.

The instructions still say to stack and sand the four fins. I can understand this back when fins were die-cut using razor blades set in a block. The blades could shift when punching out fin sets by the hundreds.

But now, fins are drawn on a computer screen. Draw one fin, copy it and paste. There shouldn't be any difference between the first, fourth or thousandth laser cut fin.
But for whatever reason, some kits with "identical" laser cut pieces have have had slight differences in size. Always check them by stacking to see if they match up.