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Hot Cutting


In article <63580@hydra.gatech.EDU>, sc5@prism.gatech.EDU (CSEPLO,STEPHEN P) writes:
|>I'm a little different in that I come out of Autocad, no hand drawn stuff
|>for me unless I miss a little bit and don't want to replot. Being on
|>a micro CAD system makes allowances a breeze and changing size is as
|>easy as plotting to a different scale. To say nothing of being precise.
|>Normally my kites are within 1/16" of being perfectly symetrical. God, I  
|>love CAD.

I would love to have a CAD system with a big plotter. Right now I use
rulers and calculators to scale drawings and such. Anybody want to
donate a computer and a large plotter?

|>OK. Maybe cardboard was the wrong choice of words. But would you know 
|>what I meant if I said chipboard? Maybe if you're an architect or architectural
|>student or a printer for that matter. The stuff is typically gray, 1/32" to
|>1/16" thick and is used as protection for printed matter or blue print
|>paper (blue line paper to be precise, haven't done blue prints in the industry
|>for over 15 years, but the name still sticks).

I use chipboard for most of my templates these days. A tip from Bob
Brannen, one of my Storm Front team mates is to use aluminum tape on
the edges of the cardboard. This greatly reduces the charring often
found with just the cardboard, and it doesn't conduct the heat away as
quickly as an all metal template.

Chipboard can also be purchased at art supply places. It's the least
expensive of the boards for sale, but I don't remember the price.

I also use aluminum flashing for templates. This is easily cut with
scissors and makes for a more durable template than cardboard. If you
do use flashing, use a file or sandpaper to remove the bur that
cutting with scissors will leave on the edge of the flashing.

Bob Brannen also often does hot cutting on masonite because the fabric
tends to get stuck to the masonite, thereby anchoring it down. This
makes successive cuts (when making strips, for instance) much easier
to do.

I cold cut on one of those self healing plastic mats as described in
another note. For pieces larger than the mat I cut on the glass.

I use the Olfa snap off razor knifes. These are inexpensive enought
that I can snap off and get a new point often enough that I always
have a sharp edge.

To hold the templates in place, I use fishing weights. A great
suggestion from someone who does lots of sewing is rolls of pennies.
These are inexpensive, and if you find that you don't need as many as
you have, you can just spend them on more kite material!
--
Marty Sasaki                            sasaki@tle.enet.dec.com
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