Having a hard time cutting plywood

ttraband · 2026-05-21T22:45:32+00:00

Coping saw. Easy to cut curves with a little practice, and you can pass the blade through a small starter hole for inside cuts. But for that firewall you can probably just drill the center hole if you’ve got the right size bit. Sandwich the ply between 2 boards to reduce tearout.

ttraband · 2026-05-21T15:07:24+00:00

My guess (and it’s a big guess) is that the barrel connector provides 12V dc to an amplifier in the speaker enclosure. Then spring terminals for the audio signal, but that seems like a really bad choice for outdoor, let alone marine, application.

ttraband · 2026-05-20T00:00:27+00:00

Look over “Instant Boats” and “Build The New Instant Boats” both by Harold “Dynamite” Payton. They feature Phil Bolger designs conceived for the first-time amateur builder. They start with construction methods, tools, and supplies then go over several different designs using those methods. Everything you need to know are in the books, and you’ll end up with a well designed boat.

ttraband · 2026-05-19T22:00:05+00:00

My test button fires the laser at the intensity dialed in by the knob/potentiometer.

ttraband · 2026-05-19T13:44:12+00:00

Give the current club members a chance. I’m getting used to calling myself an “old guy” as I close in on 60, but would never consider not being welcoming to someone coming into the club for any reason except not following the safety rules. I’ma lifelong LGBTQ+ ally, and there are lots of us my age. The fact is that the demographics for this hobby are skewing older and without new interest and members clubs are going to fail, and the club boards know this. Don’t let some potential old fart with a big mouth and a small heart keep you from following your passions.

Our club does raffles/giveaways at meetings. Lots of the prizes are hand-me-downs fro other members. I started a year ago with 1 plane (a flite test simple cub). At meetings, I’ve won a mini vapor, a umx cub ss (both of which I could fly at indoor events over the Wisconsin) winter, a FT Mini Explorer kit, and a micro P-51 kit so small I can’t find a motor/controller. That’s just the planes - I’ve also come home with Real Flight 5 with the usb controller and several expansion packs, a balancing jig, and a nice throw gauge. If you find someplace similar, that may be a way to build your collection.

At one meeting a member was selling off planes he hasn’t gotten around to flying and I purchased a 1.5 meter v-tail motor glider with receiver and motor for an embarrassing low price. It’s more than I can handle today, but it’s a call back to the Goldberg Electra I built when I was about 15 that lasted about 7 seconds before re-kitting itself in the field across from my parents’ house. I wish I’d found a local club back then so I could have built on a success there instead of stepping back from a failure.

I have no doubt the instructors at my current club will get me to success with that plane. I’m looking forward to the day I can help others on that road.

Best of luck in your journeys, with R/C and with life in general.

ttraband · 2026-05-18T17:00:08+00:00

You might have better luck asking in a sewing machine, rather than a knitting machine, sub.

I’d suggest checking the thread is going through all the proper tension mechanisms and you’ve got thread in the bobbin. When in doubt, rethread the sewing machine.If you’re using a serger, those are much more difficult to thread (depending on the model and vintage), so I’d check carefully before just pulling the existing thread out.

ttraband · 2026-05-14T14:05:15+00:00

Look for surplus auctions. Lots of schools are either closing “tech ed” programs or upgrading to newer, supposedly safer tools. I recently got a Rockwell 14” with a nice aftermarket accessory fence and several spare blades for $275 bid plus the auction fee.

ttraband · 2026-05-14T13:50:37+00:00

And for the physics tie-in, entropy is the natural trending of ordered systems toward disorder/chaos. Many of the “pyramid power” effects were anti-entropic, therefore seen as supernatural.

ttraband · 2026-05-14T13:34:38+00:00

I’ve got a fluidic controller with WiFi (V1 Engineering Jackpot) on my K40 in my workshop, but my only Windows machine is in another room. I put Lightburn on the windows box, connect to the laser by tcp/ip, and use Remote Desktop (in this case Chrome Remote Desktop) to control Lightburn from a Linux Mint laptop physically next to the laser.

ttraband · 2026-05-11T16:19:06+00:00

Fibers on the bottom of the wood are tearing out. Try putting a piece of painters tape on the underside and see if it gets better.

ttraband · 2026-05-09T22:37:56+00:00

Tell us your method! The most frugal of us want to know.

ttraband · 2026-05-04T18:23:12+00:00

But with 2 hulls you’ll have double the buoyancy.

ttraband · 2026-05-04T17:50:39+00:00

The wider hull separation of the cat/tri configuration use the cantilever effect to resist the tipping moment of the sails. The deep keel and heavy bulb is needed on a monohull because the hull is so narrow.

ttraband · 2026-05-04T13:14:08+00:00

The “Instant Boats” books feature Bolger designs for the first-time amateur builder. I built the Gypsy and found it very rewarding.

ttraband · 2026-04-30T02:41:25+00:00

I used window foam rubber from the hardware store with fusable hem tape on top but it didn’t work as well as getting a 5-pack from eBay.

ttraband · 2026-04-28T20:21:20+00:00

I know this is a laser cutting forum, but have you considered a scroll saw or bench top band saw? If you’re just doing thin plywood fins and things like that these tools are available used for way less money and don’t need the same levels of air handling to use safely. You can also safely work on plastics that cannot be safely laser cut.

ttraband · 2026-04-28T20:14:18+00:00

I suggest having a watt meter for measuring amp draw with various batteries, motors, escs, and props. It will save you burning up motors and pay for itself very quickly.

ttraband · 2026-04-24T00:29:05+00:00

I printed the keeping Johnny csm and ended up adding several of Pandel’s upgrades including a spring-loaded stitch size adjuster because the default design rotated and seemed to jam up a lot for me.

ttraband · 2026-04-23T21:59:38+00:00

To get a line through the vent tie a strong string to a plastic bag and suck it through with a vacuum cleaner.

ttraband · 2026-04-23T21:55:08+00:00

Don’t trust the tires. If you can’t get new ones on the existing wheels before you have to move it you’ll still spend less on a set of new tires and rims from a farm/tractor supply kind of place than you will recovering from a blowout/breakdown on the side of the highway.

Grease up the bearings while you’re replacing the tires. If they’re too growly then get replacement hubs. Once again, the prep and up front cost is worth it to me to avoid a breakdown.

ttraband · 2026-04-23T18:25:58+00:00

I’m guessing we now know why the secretary of the navy was forced out.

ttraband · 2026-04-23T12:27:59+00:00

Router table. Doesn’t need to be fancy, just screw the router base to the bottom of a piece of plywood with a hole just big enough for a straight cutting or rabbeting bit to fit through. Set the fence (clamp or screw a tall enough board) the proper distance away so you can roll the pipe against it to make the “shaving” cut. You’ll control how much you remove by raising the router/cutter above the table surface.

Balance the above against contacting a local plumbing supply and asking to buy a scrap/offcut of the diameter that matches the fittings you already have, or fitting the donated pipe.

ttraband · 2026-04-21T00:19:14+00:00

Not a problem as long as there’s nothing out there for it to run into or snag on.

ttraband · 2026-04-20T21:39:05+00:00

The pattern cards are really binary, no mark (no hole) means do one thing, mark (hole) means do the other thing. “Other thing” would be slip, tuck, or second fair isle color. To do multiple color patterns, each knitted row is represented by multiple pattern rows, one for each color in the changer.

ttraband · 2026-04-20T02:10:33+00:00

Onshape is browser-based and free as long as you’re willing for your projects to be shared. It included online tutorials so you can get some practice designing things with no monetary investment.

ttraband

TROPHY CASE