wandererfan wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:22 pm
How do you plan on cutting your ribs? Do you use something like a laser cutter?
Hi wandererfan, yes @chrisb gave me very useful information. This group is fantastic and the response is phenomenal. We're dealing with passionate people here... It's obvious that this topic is of interest to a number of people. After all, what's the use of a sophisticated modelling tool if you can't output precision products.
At the prototype stage, I will be cutting the ribs manually. This first involves the precision fabrication of a template made out of something like 1/8" massonite. I first glue the 1:1 scale printed drawing using epoxy. The epoxy penetrates the paper and the massonite surface and bonds them together in a solid plastic matrix. This prevents the paper edge from messing up during the fabrication process.
The template is then roughly cut near (within 1mm) the drawing outline with a jigsaw. Afterwards, using a sanding paper jig at 90 degrees to the edge of the template, I slowly sand down the edge all the way to the drawing trace while wearing magnifying goggles very close to the surface. The template edge being ground down is slightly inclined (maybe 10 degrees) relative to the horizontal to make sure that the sanding strokes are always downwards from the surface to prevent the paper from rolling back. Afterwards, I use the template as a guide to machine the ribs with a router and a bearing bit. If the drawing trace is precise enough, I can easily attain a precision of 0.05mm.
I now have 2 methods of generating the required prints thanks to all your help. Using FC and other tools such as Octave, Gimp, etc., all my design tool requirements are met.