Legal Questions about Design Copyrights and Liabilities (lawyers are welcome! ;-)

[heaviator]

Jb,

I'm curious to know if you'd be interested in subcontracting with your CNC cutters to cut metal blanks for ribs and fuselage frames and perhaps some other parts for an original copyrighted design (in process) which I hope to start building in late 2012. What size parts will your CNC cutters be able to create? I live in SC, not far from where you're located.

HEA

[martymayes]

Well, there is a company that will CNC cut a load of 4130 steel tubing to length and notch the ends for a number of steel truss fuselage airplanes. One can purchase this "kit" and weld up a fuselage with almost no steel tube cutting and fitting. I know for some of those "kits" they don't have any permission from the folks that own the legal rights to the design. Not sure if they have been sued or not but they are still in business, cutting and notching away.

[subnoize]

Actually, the CNC machines cost less than you woud think. Look up a guy named Ahren at http://www.cncrouterparts.com and he can get you set up and running. The machines themselves are not the hard part, its the CAD/CAM part that is costly now. If you had the g-code ready almost anyone could spit out the parts for you. The trouble is getting the CAD files into a ready to run g-code file! You need to google CAMBAM. Its a program for taking CAD models into g-code. Remember, James Weibe over at Belite Aircraft dropped his kit prices because it was cheaper to buy and run the CNC himself...

jb