DSDN 104: Laser Cutting Files

Having worked till late tonight, I figured I should round it off with the corresponding blog post. The laser cutting files are complete, all ready for submission tomorrow.

There are very precise guidelines that have to be adhered to when it comes to creating a file to be laser cut, as well as things that have to be taken into account. The laser burns away a certain amount of material when it passes over it, and this has to be taken into account when planning the shapes. I want my shapes to be 50mm x 50mm, and the kerf (the amount that is burned away) is 0.2mm in both acrylic and card, so therefore I need to add 0.2 mm to all sides of my shape.

The part where this will be of the most impact will be on my bolt holes though, so I need to make sure they won't come out too loose. So the holes I have accounted for are all 5.6mm in diameter, to account for the kerf on both sides.

This is the file that I'll be submitting for the acrylic, where you can clearly see the negative space. 

And this is the file I'll be submitting for the card.

I had to seriously consider the amount of space I was taking up, especially for the card file, which was significantly trickier to do than the other file, for obvious reasons.

Now all I've got to do is wait and receive the finished laser cut pieces back!