I need to look into one of these machines. Are those parts just drawn out or cut? The one or two Cricut machines I have seen used a very small carbide knife to cut with. thought they were a very tiny router bit. Those parts look nice even if they are just drawn pn the balsa! If you ever decide to offer just those parts, let me know. I'm pretty sure I have a set of Snapper plans.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

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.