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Laser & Vinyl Cutting

Laser cut test     Parametric kit     Vinyl cutting

Laser cut test

Group work with Xdd

We used 1/8" acrylic sheet for this assignment, cut at Building 3 Arch shop's 75W Epilog lasercutter.

The lasercutter supports setting of power, speed, and frequency. The suggested setting of our material from Arch shop is 20 speed, 60 power, 5000 frequency. Therefore, we applied the 20 speed and 5000 frequency, and varied the power value to find the actual suitable setting.

We used color mapping to cut circles with different power at once. We varied the power from 50 to 70 in the first round, and all cut through. Therefore, we performed the second round with power from 47 down to 25.

The second test round: a gradient of blue to map 25 - 47 power to circles, and red to score the annotations.

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The second test round

a gradient of blue to map 25 - 47 power to circles, and red to score the annotations.

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Power test result

We found out the circle is barely detachable at power = 35, while it didn't cut through at power <= 32. Therefore, 35 - 40 is pretty much enough power.

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Simple joint test

Next, we designed a simple joint to test the kerf clearance. We offset the joint cutting lines from -0.020 inches to +0.015 inches.

Clearance test cutting lines. Blue denotes cutting line, black denotes original lines, and red is annotation scoring.

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Joint test result

We cut them out and tried to join them. The joints with -0.020 to 0.000 offsets turned out to be loose. The pair with +0.005 offset provided comfortable friction. The pair with +0.010 offset cannot be joined with bare hand, but I hammered them together. The pair with +0.015 offset cannot be joined at all. Therefore, the kerf is about 0.005 inches thick.

Fab Light laser cutting

Fab Light Laser Cutter + Bending Brake

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For the final project's end of factors, I need two pairs of iron plates that can transfer the data. Thus, I went to CBA's lab to run a laser cutting and scoring on Aluminum sheets. 



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The file was prepared with two layers only, one for cutting and one for scoring.

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Run the job!

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The aluminum laser cut was getting a great result with a clean cut and nice scoring!

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The metal laser cut is a bit rougher and needed more work on processing it afterwards.

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The metal laser cut is a bit rougher and needed more work on processing it afterwards.

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I am quite happy with the final result of the aluminum parts, both its finishes and the bending curve.

Vinyl Cutting

step 1

Preparing your png file

600 ppi minimum

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step 2

Get ready to cut it

Calculate the png file and send it to the cutting machine

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step 3

Remove after the cutting

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step 4

Sticking it on the object

Use a paper stick to assist in removing the pattern. Never remove the whole thing first and stick each piece separately.

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step 5

Gently remove the sticker

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step 6

Done!!

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How to wrap almost anything?

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It was one day before the final presentation, and my Amazon order had not arrived yet. I struggled to find the pinball since it played the most crucial character as a conductor of my final project.

I ended up try to make my own pinball!!!



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Thanks to Alan, we came up with a genius way to print a PLA ball, and wrap it with the copper sheet. This is a diagram showing how we can unwrap the geometry and make a flattened file to vinyl cut.

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This is the flattened surface for a standard pinball's coating.

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The ball was printed with Bambu

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Cutting off the copper sheet.

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Cutting out the copper sheet.

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Cutting out the copper sheet.

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Smash it on the table carefully.

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Here is the copper-coated pinball!

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Fun fact that I also tried to electrify the PLA to make the iron attached on its surface, but the result wasn't that good.

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