CNC?

[Harley]

That's a great story you have related there David.

Sounds like he was a kind hearted, yet humble man.

[Frankenspeakers]

Three words Dave: You... Lucky... Dog!

<not jealous...really, honestly... ... gnaarrrrr>

[EW]

I work in a waterjet shop & take advantage of the equipment at hand & have ‘jetted out a pair of Omni 15’s & a pair of oversized SLA’s, and while I can cut all my parts on the machine faster than I could make two cuts on a table saw & a whole lot more accurate, (for me, anyway) the time saved in the grand scheme of things has been fairly small, so I wouldn’t suggest pursuing it solely in an effort to save time if you plan to make just one or two.

[dbaldock]

That's a great story you have related there David.

Sounds like he was a kind hearted, yet humble man.

I'm not sure that's exactly how he would be described ...

Here are a couple of Interviews-with / Articles-about him, that will sort-of give you an idea of what I mean:
(NOTE: The text has some slightly confusing numbers that appear in it, possibly the page numbers from the original publication.)

Roots of High Fidelity: Paul Klipsch (1979)
Paul Klipsch - Arkansas Speaker Maker (1980)



On several of the occasions that we were in Hope, I got to ride with Mr. Klipsch from the factory to the restaurant, and then to his house. He had an old Mercedes diesel sedan that he drove at an alarmingly high rate of speed on the not always smooth country roads! I noticed a toggle switch swinging from some wires under the dash, and asked him about it. His answer was that the ignition switch had broken, and he wasn't about to drive to Little Rock and pay the Mercedes dealer prices to replace it - so he just soldered a switch on to take care of it. This would have been when he was in his early 70's.


Just to add something on topic, I worked at a Caterpillar dealership in the 1980's, and they had one of those large flat-bed cutting systems that used as many as 5 or 6 Oxyacetylene torches to cut pieces of 2" to 3" steel. That model used a photo-detector to follow the lines of a blueprint drawing. One day, it followed a fly that happened to be walking on the print. Luckily the fly walked outside rather than inside the line and the operator noticed it almost immediately. He was able to reset at the point of departure.

[coyoteboy]

I work in a waterjet shop & take advantage of the equipment at hand & have ‘jetted out a pair of Omni 15’s & a pair of oversized SLA’s, and while I can cut all my parts on the machine faster than I could make two cuts on a table saw & a whole lot more accurate, (for me, anyway) the time saved in the grand scheme of things has been fairly small, so I wouldn’t suggest pursuing it solely in an effort to save time if you plan to make just one or two.

Agreed it actually won't save much time, it will likely take longer with all the tweaking I'll want to do, but I know they'll turn out better and easier than If I try to wrestle a 4x8 sheet into my dad's little garage. Actually, the lasers are fully automated, so I could really churn 'em out if I wanted...

Out of curiosity, EW, do recall the feed rate you had jetting the ply? Did you have to dry it out afterwards?

[AntonZ]

Just to add something on topic, I worked at a Caterpillar dealership in the 1980's, and they had one of those large flat-bed cutting systems that used as many as 5 or 6 Oxyacetylene torches to cut pieces of 2" to 3" steel. That model used a photo-detector to follow the lines of a blueprint drawing. One day, it followed a fly that happened to be walking on the print. Luckily the fly walked outside rather than inside the line and the operator noticed it almost immediately. He was able to reset at the point of departure.

To think of what the machine from hell might have cut, hilarious
One hell of a bug in that system

[EW]

I cut as fast as the machine would travel accurately, which in this particular case is about 100 ipm (big machine). I cut above water with a piece of sacrificial material underneath (cardboard) & removed the pieces as soon as they were cut to minimize exposure to the water. I perform any other steps for drying, and after about two years haven’t come across any noticable ill effects such as warping or swelling. For grins I attempted to measure the swelling at the cut edge compared to a factory cut edge & got <.005 difference.

The ability to go back & cut something 1, 2, 3+ years from now exactly like the first time with only having to remember the file name is pretty nice, eh?

[coyoteboy]

Yeah, it's nice. If only the Mitsu cut bevels! I'll report my laser results in the inevitable build thread.

[coyoteboy]

Well, the search for plywood is turning to be more difficult than I anticipated. Nothing available locally to Modesto. Valley Distributers in Turlock believes they can get the good stuff from Capitol Plywood in Sac., at $75 for a 4x8 1/2". Is this in the ballpark? I believe it's A2 grade, 5-ply.

I had a look at the Arauco at Lowe's, and the 1/2(12mm) I saw had fairly conspicuous voids on the outside edges of most of the sheets. I may try it for a first pass mockup, and if it turns out well, then great, if not, then it's practice I need.

[Dave Non-Zero]

Sounds like he was a kind hearted, yet humble man.

Sounds like you Harley.

[DaveK]

If you don't mind driving to Rancho Cordova, Hughes Hardwood has 4x8 BB at $50 per sheet and 5x5 at $30 per sheet. This was as of a few months ago, so call for current stock levels.

[coyoteboy]

Thanks Dave. Is it the "good stuff"? As in you've seen it/used it?

edit: confirmed 5x5 BB @ $31.95. He said the 4x8 birch he has available is imported, but not Baltic.

Thanks again, Dave.

[DaveK]

It's the good stuff from the Baltics. Even has Cyrillic characters in the inspection stamp.

Ask them to double-check the 4x8. When I was last there a few months ago, they had both "domestic" 4x8 with thin veneer and Baltic 4x8 with 9 equal plies. They were in separate bins perhaps 20-30 feet apart. If the Baltic 4x8 is all gone, maybe it's because bgavin snapped it up