# Custom laser cutting?



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Anyone have any experience with custom laser cutting for small runs? 

Is it very expensive? 


Do you need to be a CAD expert, or can you use a regular drawing program?


----------



## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Several people have had really good things to say about Rio Grande Models UK[/b][/b].


----------



## parkdesigner (Jan 5, 2008)

David at RMGUK did two passenger cars for me this year, each one a "one-off" style. Price was very good, and he was excellent to work with. He can help you with the CAD too if you can't do it. here is his email 
[email protected]


----------



## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

David Gormley at RGMUK is a great person to work with. He is doing a one-off for me now. Excellent pricing. He also did the Cad work for me.


----------



## Jack - Freshwater Models (Feb 17, 2008)

Ray, 

Laser cutting requires either a corel or dwg/dxf drawing. Depending on the complexity of the part you may be able to send someone a sketch that they can do the cad work from. Learning a cad or solid modeling program is a major help in building models. I draw in an older version of Autocad Lt and in Rhino. Both can output dfx/dwg files that can be used by a good laser cutter. There are some freebie cad programs available. If you want accurate parts you need to think in terms of dimensions. 

I've used a couple of people in the US with good results and reasonable prices. 

Jack


----------



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Thanks for the info. 

RE: CAD, I bought TurboCAD 2 about a year and a half ago. I thought it would be pretty simple to figure out, since I have experience with a 3D modeling/rendering program, as well as various 2D drawing programs. Boy was I wrong -- and their lousy manual assumes you're already a CAD expert. I eventually gave up trying to figure it out.


----------



## parkdesigner (Jan 5, 2008)

Ray - I would contact David and talk to him about your needs... he may be able to "CAD" up something for you pretty easy. I know the more data you can provide, the better- so if you work in painter, or CS4 for example you could at least do a line drawing of what you want, plus dimension everything. If you work in Solidworks or 3D Studio Max, I think both of those can export to a DWG file.


----------



## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Ray,

David uses AutoCad and it was so much easier (and cheaper), to have him do it for me than to do it myself on MasterCAM for which I have over twenty years experience. He knew exactly what to include in the drawing, for his laser guy.


----------



## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Ray
What are you interested in having drawn and built, I do both 3d cad, auto cad and laser work, all i need is a pecil sketch or a good description.
Dennis


----------



## Rods UP 9000 (Jan 7, 2008)

Doug at" http://www.bronson-tate.com" could do it for you. He has done cars and a few other thing in the Master Class here on MLS. 
All he needs is basic drawings. 
Rodney


----------



## jonathanj (Jan 24, 2008)

I'd also recommend Doug at Bronson-Tate - usual disclaimer, just a very satisfied customer.

Jonathan


----------

