Laser Cutting Tolerances

[Turnip-Stew (Stewart Davies)]

I have some 3mm acrylic that i’m going to laser cut to make a casing out of. Does anybody have any idea what sort of tolerance I should make intersecting holes for a nice tight fit? I was thinking arond 0.2mm but any advice would be appreciated

[unknowndomain (Tommie / Tom)]

The issue is more to do with kerf i.e. how much the laser melts, and that varies with the shape, so tbh you may be best off doing a test cut then fitting it.

However generally if the laser is well focused 0.1mm -0.2mm has always worked for me, but sometimes you get issues around 0.1mm so I’d aim higher.

[tobyspark (Toby Harris)]

It’s well possible to get a nice friction fit. I’d second doing tests.

Makerspace Lanyards

Events mean name badges, and we’ve got a laser cutter. Here is how to make Makerspace lanyards. Here’s the finished article – [slms-tobyspark-arduinoday-2016-04-02-18-DSC_0785] Each badge takes 79x100mm of red and white acrylic. There’s a PDF each for the red (front) cut-out and rear (white) cut-out. The white ‘M’ parts should friction-fit into the red. Plastic weld or double-sided sticky tape the rear pieces onto the front. The gap in the white is a channel for the lanyard cord, and having p…