Dan, the parts are cut through the balsa sheet. The Maker series of Cricut machines are used for balsa, either 1/16” or 3/32” sheet. The blade is a cartridge that is geared to hold a blade that always faces the cut. The lower end Cricut machines use blades that drag as they cut, so they wouldn’t work with Balsa. I never thought of using the pen holder and drawing the parts like the old printwood kits from Comet or Megow. Maybe if replacement blades get too expensive I might try that. Or maybe I’ll try it anyway just to see how it works out.
I’m sorry, but making parts to ship is just too much of a headache. The price of good balsa, shipping, packing materials, blade wear, mat wear, etc. is just not worth it. I cut for myself or fellow club members and they give me balsa to replace what I cut up. But, I would recommend these machines to anyone who likes making their own kits. The one I have is the last generation. I think I saw them still for sale at Hobby Lobby for $199.00 on sale. But I’d bet that’s just liquidating inventory. The Maker3 is the new thing, and is much more expensive at about $349. I’d imagine if you looked at Craig’s List or eBay you might find a lightly used one for a good price.
Jim, I initially bought one of those cheap laser cutting machines, but it was too long and complicated a process, and safety of working with lasers was also a concern. CNC is beyond my ability or inclination. For this Cricut machine, I use a freeware program called Inkscape to draw the parts, and the Cricut DesignSpace software drives the machine. It didn’t take long to figure it out, and I find it quite easy to make kits or short kits. I just draw all the parts, then arrange them to maximize wood usage. The short kit shown used two sheets of 4”x36” 1/16” balsa, completely using one sheet and 24” of the other sheet. Using Hobby Lobby wood, it’s about $7 worth of wood. I have to buy at Hobby Lobby locally because the local HobbyTown wood selection is pathetic. The Hobby Lobby wood labels say the wood is from Guillow’s.