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Seems like there's lots of companies doing laser cut stuff.. like Gale Force 9 and Battlefoam and more. So, say you have an idea for something cool and new, like .. how do you get ahold of a laser that can cut stuff? what kinda materials are best to use like if you wanted to make your own movement trays or tokens or whatever..? or is it more like you develop something with CAD software, and then send the files off to some company in asia that makes little kids produce it for you?

You point your las-pistol at it and squeeze. We had one in my school workshop haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting

The machines are just called laser-cutters I think.

I see this ending badly.

Necros wrote:Seems like there's lots of companies doing laser cut stuff.. like Gale Force 9 and Battlefoam and more. So, say you have an idea for something cool and new, like .. how do you get ahold of a laser that can cut stuff? what kinda materials are best to use like if you wanted to make your own movement trays or tokens or whatever..? or is it more like you develop something with CAD software, and then send the files off to some company in asia that makes little kids produce it for you?

Something tells me that this not so subtle attempt to revive the three (four, though two I believe are duplicate threads) debates that have been mod-locked
here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314716.page
here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314616.page
and here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314511.
and forgot this one here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314515.page

will not end well.

As for the ability to produce anything via laser, there are industrial lasers that can be sold that can cut through things (laser technology can make the laser harmless to lethal, as your needs depend) and controlled via computer with programming that can do anything from lasers that are used to pinpoint other machines for precision work to actually cutting out products and make etched designs.

Someone with more technical knowhow will be needed to explain.

You can adjust the laser to engrave stuff as well as cut, it's really pretty easy once you have the design.

not looking to stir any pots just wondering how it's done like in general

Have you never heard of Google?

http://www.tech-faq.com/how-a-laser-cutter-works.html

Had one in the school I used to work in. Is pretty cool.

Last time I saw one, it was during Laser Vision Surgery. Sounded like a gas cookers ignition!

I guess I should rephrase my question.. I don't care about how a laser works and how beams of light kill things, but more like how do you go about using a laser cutter thingamabob to make some of your own hobby things, for my own use and not to steal people's patents and copyrights and make 12 drama posts on dakka

I was just thinking it'd be cool if I could make some of my own custom movement trays and stuff like that. I kinda have this idea to make a tourney display board that would be thin like a GF9 movement tray, and the laser thingy could cut the holes where I want to place the units. I figure the wood would last longer and be a lot more sturdy than foam board. but I'm betting it would prolly cost way too much to do it :(

Step 1: Gather materials:

Drill/Drill Press
Forstner bits in appropriate sizes
Two appropriately thin pieces of wood

Step 2: Drill your holes in wood #1

Step 2.5: Sand holes as needed

Step 3: Glue wood #1 to wood #2

Done.

Laser cutting things like movement trays/display boards makes sense for large scale projects...maybe. For home application, you are overcomplicating it.

edit - note that if you have a drill press, you can probably just use one thicker piece of wood with depth gauging.

/shoutout to Jeff at Dragonforge, who turned me on to Forstner bits.

I've seen those drill bits before. I have a similar one for a project I tried to do before but it just ripped up the wood. I dunno if the bit was sucky, or the wood, or both.

I don't have a drill press but I have a pretty solid regular drill.

I guess another thing I'll need is wood that's as thin as the GW base thickness so it's all flush. I wanna have a thin sheet of wood that's like 2'x2', then a thin sheet of metal, and then another thin sheet of wood to make the holes, and I'd put mini magnets under each base to keep the models in place.

The reason I was thinking of laser cutting though is for irregular shapes, like the oval bases for valkyries and trygons, and I also thought about thin rectangular holes for tank treads, with a mini magnet drilled into the tread so they stay in place also.

And is wood the best way to go? what about other materials? I saw in news & rumors one fella is making 40k roads with a laser cutter and some other material called perspex. I just want something durable that will last long, and also fairly innexpensive

Ok, first of all you'll need one of these:



one of these:



and one of these for extracting the fumes:



That should come to about £7,500.

Still with me? Ok, then you'll need a computer and this computer program (or similar).

Now, you'll need a thin plastic acrylic sheet (or anything up to a couple centimeters really). Design your stuff on the compter program and print onto the material via the laser cutter. Rinse and repeat.

Cease and Desist.

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

You'll need one of these too.

Like research the gak out of it and stuff, Like totaly awesome for sure.

I'm teasing of course, but seriously Dakka isn't the venue to get questions like this answered... Answered seriously anyway.

Getting something laser cut is actually pretty cheap and easy. If you have the ability to generate a PDF with the outline you want in full scale there are many places who can do it for you for only a few dollars.

I have ordered from this site in the past:

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/749

but you should be able to get the same thing done at a good local awards and engraving shop. Another alternative to look into is CNC routing instead of laser engraving which will be able to do the same irregular outlines, if a laser shop is not available. The cheap and easy lasers will do plastic or wood only. Industrial lasers can cut metal but will be a lot harder to find and will also be a lot more expensive to buy time on.

If you want to get your own cutter you can get a base model for ~$5K, though if you are willing to risk chinese brands with little to no technical support or guarantee you can get them for as little as $1500.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Acrylic is probably the material of choice for laser cutting, every place with a laser cutter will have some in stock.

Some laser sellers:

http://www.epiloglaser.com/
http://www.ulsinc.com/

I think CorelDraw is the industry standard for software, though you can get many other programs that will work, some for free. Like I said most places can just use a PDF. They work more like printers than say a CNC mill or lathe.

I tried here since there's a bunch of different folks laser cutting stuff so I figured someone would have some ideas. All my googling pulled up was scientific stuff.

Thanks asmith thats just the info I was looking for

I don't want to buy my own laser cutter, no room and couldn't justify spending that much without starting a business around it and I don't wanna get into that. I was hoping for something more like making an EPS file and sending it to a company to make it for me. I'll try that company you used. I actually found a place that's pretty local but they do metal stuff like for machine components so thats not what I'm looking for. For the metal sheet I was talking about I figured I would just cut that myself with shears, I just need something really thin for the magnets to stick to.

I encourage you to find a local engraving or awards shop or a signmaker. They won't advertise a laser or router service, but they should be able to do what you need. Plus you can probably watch while they are doing it. A router/engraver should be able to cut thin metal as well.

I think you're so focused on laser cutting just for the cool way it sounds that you're not seeing what it is to get things laser cut.

All you want is any decent carpenter who can cut any wood to any size you want using your specs.

If you were going for a special design, hard to reproduce due to varying geometric shapes, or just the sheer size, it might be worth it but just for cutting several holes in a plank is it worth it?

if it was woodworking I'd love to do it myself, I just don't have the space since I'm in a 1 br condo and my bbq grill takes up half my teeny balcony. So I was thinking if I could have another company make it for me it would be easier and the laser stuff would be more precise, I could design what I want and just give the file to whoever makes it.

Yeah laser cutting is not that big a deal. I say pursue it if that's what you want to do. there is just a small learning curve in how to make your artwork. I would recommend that you try to cram as much stuff onto a sheet as possible rather than breaking it up into a bunch of different orders. most places use can handle sheets several ft on a side (I think the site I linked to is 4ftx3ft) which is enough space to put a lot of ideas on. One sheet of acrylic, no matter how complicated the pattern will likely be well south of $50.

Well, you get a laser, then you cut stuff. Then use your remaining eye to check it and make sure it was cut correctly.

There's a few companies online that will gladly cut designs you submit for you and send you the results. Could be cool to use to make your own bunkers, etc.