Laser Lizard : Laser Cutting Balsa Wood for Models and Crafts

Size Specifications:
Our table is 20 inches by 30 inches. If your desired piece is larger than this, it can be puzzle cut. We have balsa woods up to 1/2 of an inch. We can cut birch ply woods up to 1/8th. We can cut lite ply up to 1/4th inch. We have access to premium hobby woods in whatever sizes you might want. On thicker sizes they will be cut in multiple pieces and the modeler may laminate them to the desired thickness.

We Also do custom work:
The first step in this process is getting your plans scanned so that we can trace your parts for laser format for cutting. Our charge for scanning only is currently $12.00 a plan sheet. This covers the cost of having your plans scanned in for vectoring only. Please add $6.50 for return shipping. This price does not include wood or laser time cutting fees. Computer set up time fee varies from plan to plan. Please email us for a quote.

NOTE: Some have misunderstood this; any customization of plans and parts MUST be done before sending plans for kit cutting. We do not do customization of plans/redesigning poor plans--- we cut kits from plans and parts customers supply that are ready for scanning and cutting BEFORE they arrive here. ( Example of a poor plan - 5 parts drawn on top of each other with ten different dotted lines, etc, and certain parts unclear or not isolated from the other parts. If anything is unclear, you must trace it in black and white and provide 1:1 sized drawings of what you want laser cut. In other words something I can scan and trace.) We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause , but we just don't have the time right now to redesign plans.

ATTENTION AUTOCAD DESIGNERS: For those of you that already have your files in CAD format for cutting here are our set up guidelines to help you with the quoting process:

Balsa layout single cuts: 4 x 30 inch template. Red for cut, Lime green for lettering. Dark blue for any line markings. TXT font size 14 - 16 point. Hold in gaps for the cut if you desire your part to not fall out of the sheets is .015. Place this gap perpendicular to the grain where possible. Gaps left running with the grain are nearly useless. 2 or 3 per rib is sufficient. Kerf of the laser beam is approx. .005 inch. The means that if you have a .25 inch hole you want tight, draw it as a .24 inch hole. Nest your parts no closer together than : .03 .

Balsa layout duplicate cuts: 4 x16 . We have a dual head attachment. If you layout your balsa cuts in a 4 x 16 box we will automatically through usage of a mirror cut a duplicate image of the file in another 4 x 16 inch box to the right of your image. When I see any balsa layouts in 4 x16 format I will know you desire 2 of the part. Layout the same otherwise as in single cutting. Of course, if your part exceeds 16 inches in length you cannot use the dual head so layout as above. thanks

Plywood layout: 12 x 30 inch. Layout the same as balsa in the case of colors, etc. We can use the dual head attachment on the 1/8th poplar only. 12x16 on that for dual head. All other plywoods can only use single head.

Please, layout all of your drawings in one file. Label the wood types at the top of a column and put the images below the wood thickness and type in the column. Nothing is more confusing than 20 files each with a separate type of wood or drawing with NOTHING labeled inside the file itself. Thanks.

Here are all of the file types in the Corel import list that we can accept, but dwg is preferred to all:

CDR,CLK,CMX,EPS,AI,PS,PRN,WPG,WMF,EMF,CGM,PDF,SVG,SVG2,TTM,PCT,DXF,DWG,PLT,FMV,GEM,PIC,USD,FH,MET,

NAP,3DMF,CPX,CDX,PPT,SHW,PPF,CPT,FPX,ICO,PP4,CAL,WI,XPM,XCF,PNG,PP5,SAM,MIF,WQ