"Keith Walker" wrote in message
news:OHz%e.3054$UD6.2663@trnddc04...
there are already manufacturers selling paper kits that are laser cut.
same goes for wood kits.
if you have ever built a complicated paper kit, you know that hundreds
of hours are spent just cutting the parts out with a scissors; a laser
would remove most of that work.

So would a steel rule die. Lasers are neat tools but each tool has its
drawbacks. Lasers are expensive. Not an issue if you are putting serial
numbers on fine diamonds, or making 100,000 high speed disk drives, but when
you are making airplane models cost becomes a real issue. Think about this,
if one set of plastic cutouts is cut to a precision of +-.001" and then a
master model maker glues it together by hand is the end result going to be a
whole lot different than the same person working with parts that are
+-.010"?

There are some places where .0001 matters, and there are places where it
does not. Keep that in mind and you will not go nuts.

--

__
Roger Shoaf

Important factors in selecting a mate:
1] Depth of gene pool
2] Position on the food chain.





kww

Roger Shoaf wrote:
"Keith Walker" wrote in message
news:jo3_e.11951$TQ3.6949@trnddc05...

Roger,

I am thinking of designing an model airplane kit analogous to the way
paper airplane kits are designed.

Big difference is that if you make the kit out of styrene, you can bend,
glue, sand and paint it. With paper as your medium you can not do that!

Hence my requirement for thin line widths (within reason)

Here is a good example of paper kits:
http://www.papermodels.co.il/

Keith Walker


OK Keith, let's think about something here. .00025 inches is an
unreasonable quest for a line to be scribed on a chunk of plastic. You
would need the light just right and good magnification just to see it.
If
you wanted to cut out pieces to assemble an airplane out of styrene like
the
card model you showed you can cut them out with a pair of scissors or an
ex-acto knife.

If you wanted to make a bunch of them and pre-cut the model parts, then
you
can get a steel rule die made up to cut them out of sheet stock. That
is
low tech and cheep.

You may also wish to consider vacuum forming some of the more intricate
curves. This is also cheep but requires a certain degree of skill to
make
the molds, but far less than injection molding.

Lasers a really great tools but you really don't need to go there to
make
toys.