December 2023-
Well, after much ruminating, back and fourth making changes to my dimensions, I have finally decided to pull the trigger and cut my plywood core pieces.
Consisting of consecutively stacked circular shaped rings, I decided to save some material and make the intermediate layers in segments that I can laminate. This way I was able to nest the parts within the centre of the rings that would have otherwise been wasted. A lot easier to do on a CNC router than by hand.
That said, I had long planned to have at least 1-2 layers of rings complete so that I could jig the remaining smaller parts from a datum. I use 1/8" holes and wood screws to take care of the alignment. The holes are drilled by the machine prior to any profiling operations.
I tip my hat to my friend Read who basically did the same plywood core manually with a router for his Falcon build.
Despite being cut on a machine, it still took quite a lot of time to plan and program before pressing the button. And being in a hurry to get it done before the holidays, I made at least one mistake which I fortunately was able to recover from with some minor rework on the fly which should remain barely noticeable, if at all.
The upper and lower layers have been laminated with PVA wood glue leaving 3x more layers to laminate in the middle of the stack. Unfortunately I ran out of time to get the rest laminated prior to Christmas. I'll pick it up in the new year.
Really glad to finally have some tangible progress on this project.
Well, after much ruminating, back and fourth making changes to my dimensions, I have finally decided to pull the trigger and cut my plywood core pieces.
Consisting of consecutively stacked circular shaped rings, I decided to save some material and make the intermediate layers in segments that I can laminate. This way I was able to nest the parts within the centre of the rings that would have otherwise been wasted. A lot easier to do on a CNC router than by hand.
That said, I had long planned to have at least 1-2 layers of rings complete so that I could jig the remaining smaller parts from a datum. I use 1/8" holes and wood screws to take care of the alignment. The holes are drilled by the machine prior to any profiling operations.
I tip my hat to my friend Read who basically did the same plywood core manually with a router for his Falcon build.
Despite being cut on a machine, it still took quite a lot of time to plan and program before pressing the button. And being in a hurry to get it done before the holidays, I made at least one mistake which I fortunately was able to recover from with some minor rework on the fly which should remain barely noticeable, if at all.
The upper and lower layers have been laminated with PVA wood glue leaving 3x more layers to laminate in the middle of the stack. Unfortunately I ran out of time to get the rest laminated prior to Christmas. I'll pick it up in the new year.
Really glad to finally have some tangible progress on this project.