cutting white paper

[officermike]

I go to USF; chances are pretty good they'll have one. Hopefully they'll be nice enough to let me use it, but first I'll have to hunt it down...

I haven't set a timeline for my project as of yet. I've made sketches of some unique concepts, but I haven't made any computer models yet. Clocks have some pretty large gear ratios, so I'm thinking of making worm gears (out of paper, am I insane?) to reduce the number of parts. Don't expect pictures anytime soon, but if/when I get it done, I'd be happy to post them here.

[mixedgas]

vis diodes are power limited. Let me do some digging, I bet we can find you a cutter shop near by, and when the holiday is over, others here will chime in,

If your very sure of your cad files, we have two or four guys here who have co2 cutters and admit it, and quite a few that dont. Seeing a working paper clock is the sort of thing they may
like.

Also the model airplane guys use laser cutters for the balsa, and take on contracts, cheap.

Hang in there, we'll find you something.

Steve

[mliptack]

I go to USF; chances are pretty good they'll have one. Hopefully they'll be nice enough to let me use it, but first I'll have to hunt it down...

Yeah they probably have one... as far as how much it costs to use... thats going to be hard to judge... many times its on a per inch basis... I wanted to get my laptop engraved at the local university... for something fairly simple engraved into my MacBook Pro, it would have set me back a few hundred dollars.

I haven't set a timeline for my project as of yet. I've made sketches of some unique concepts, but I haven't made any computer models yet. Clocks have some pretty large gear ratios, so I'm thinking of making worm gears (out of paper, am I insane?) to reduce the number of parts. Don't expect pictures anytime soon, but if/when I get it done, I'd be happy to post them here.

Worm gears with paper? Insane... yes. Unless maybe you form them using a mold or something. That way it would be paper, but the adhesive or mold agent would be really what is holding it all together...

vis diodes are power limited. Let me do some digging, I bet we can find you a cutter shop near by, and when the holiday is over, others here will chime in,

If your very sure of your cad files, we have two or four guys here who have co2 cutters and admit it, and quite a few that dont. Seeing a working paper clock is the sort of thing they may
like.

Thats exactly what I was thinking, if someone nearby helps you out, showing them the finished product may be enough to justify doing it for free.

[officermike]

Yeah they probably have one... as far as how much it costs to use... thats going to be hard to judge... many times its on a per inch basis... I wanted to get my laptop engraved at the local university... for something fairly simple engraved into my MacBook Pro, it would have set me back a few hundred dollars.


Worm gears with paper? Insane... yes. Unless maybe you form them using a mold or something. That way it would be paper, but the adhesive or mold agent would be really what is holding it all together...


Thats exactly what I was thinking, if someone nearby helps you out, showing them the finished product may be enough to justify doing it for free.

A few hundred for an engraving? Hell, I'd attack my laptop with a dremel before dropping that much.

If I do worm gears, I'll probably wrap a paper tube with an arc of paper, securing it with super glue and using baking soda as a filler for strength. Come to think of it, a couple layers of black construction paper (easy enough to cut with a diode laser, I gather) bonded with super glue would probably be strong enough for gears, and provide an interesting look in contrast with a white paper frame. Also, I could spray paint it white if desired.

I ordered a pair of flatbed scanners shortly before joining this forum, so I might as well make use of them. Maybe I'll cut some black paper or make a dremel CNC machine... I need to get experience in something other than video games.

[mixedgas]

My boss absolutely prohibits outside use of our cutters, but I will tell you this, it would be less then 5 minutes of system time and cost us about 1 dollar to cut all the parts in a typical clock, and we'd probably cut two or three at the same time. All we need is a .dxf file from autocad.

Steve