Pololu Custom Laser User Manual

Custom Laser Cutting Guide

1. Steps for Ordering Laser-Cut Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. Pricing for Laser Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3. Materials for Laser Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4. Capabilities and Limitations of Custom Laser Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5. Instructions for Laser Cutting File Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6. Examples of Custom Laser-Cut Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

6.a. Laser Cutting Example: Robot Chassis Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

6.b. Laser Cutting Example: Architectural Ornament Created from a Photograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

6.c. Laser Cutting Example: Giant 3-D Pterosaur Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

6.d. Laser Cutting Example: Servo-Driven Sumo Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

6.e. Laser Cutting Example: Pentominoes Puzzle With Engraved Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

6.f. Laser Cutting Example: Calculator Robot Chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

6.g. Laser Cutting Example: Acrylic Cat Logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

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1. Steps for Ordering Laser-Cut Parts

Once you have a design for a custom part, getting it laser cut is simple. Upon receiving your design, we typically ship within five business days, and we can ship as quickly as the same day. Here are the steps involved in making a custom part:

1. You prepare CAD or other drawing files of your custom part. (See Section 5 for information on preparing your files.)

2. You send us your designs via our quote request form [http://www.pololu.com/laserquote/new].

3. We email you a quote within 1-2 business days (faster for expedited parts).

4. You confirm a PDF proof and order the parts through our website. See our ordering information page

[http://www.pololu.com/ordering] for information on payment methods and shipping options.

5. We cut the parts and send them to you!

1. Steps for Ordering Laser-Cut Parts Page 2 of 29

2. Pricing for Laser Cutting

The cost of a laser-cut part is determined by how long the parts take to cut on the machine, the amount of labor involved (unloading and verifying parts), and the amount of risk involved in cutting a part (multiple medium-sized pieces are less risky to cut than a single large piece that takes hours to cut).

Here are some factors that affect the price of laser-cut parts:

• Laser cutting cost: The laser cutting charge is based on the time it takes to cut the parts, which depends on the material type and thickness. For example, cutting 1/8" acrylic starts at roughly $0.15 per inch. Please see the list of materials on our quote request form [http://www.pololu.com/laserquote/new] to see the cost per inch for cutting your material. There is a $3 minimum charge per unique part and a $1 minimum per additional copy of each part. We do lower these minimums for simple parts or for large quantities.

• Laser engraving cost: Raster engraving and vector engraving start at $1.00 per square inch. Raster engraving larger areas starts at $60 per square foot. Long, continuous vector engraving lines cost roughly $0.10 per inch. We do provide discounts off of these rates on a case-by-case basis.

• Material costs: We stock various plastics (acrylic, ABS, Mylar, PETG, and styrene), which we sell by the square foot. You may also mail us your own material or have a supplier ship it to us directly. Here are some prices for plastic we stock; we provide discounts if you require larger quantities:

◦ 3 mm ABS: starts at $4/sq. ft.

◦ 3 mm birch plywood: starts at $5/sq. ft.

◦ 3 mm acrylic: starts at $5/sq. ft.

◦ 6 mm acrylic: starts at $10/sq. ft.

• Minimum order: There is a $25 minimum order per material type (the minimum includes charges for labor and materials). We do lower this minimum if your design is simple or if your quantities are large.

• Shipping: We can add shipping costs or charge to FedEx shipping accounts.

• Optional charges: ◦ Expediting services: Rushing an order costs 20% – 50% more (on top of the standard-turn price) per expedited day, depending on what your standard turn time is. The standard turn time for most parts is 3-5 business days.

◦ File creation: $60 per hour with a $15 minimum

◦ Handling fee: Large or delicate parts that require custom packaging will incur a handling charge, which can range from $10 – $50.

• Exceptions: We do make exceptions to our minimums and pricing depending on the parts. If your parts are

particularly simple to handle and cut, we will provide more competitive pricing. On the other hand, we are less likely to discount our rates if your parts are more difficult or risky to cut, such as:

◦ Single large or complex parts that take a long time to cut

◦ Parts that involve a lot of careful or tedious handling (such as very small parts or fragile parts), which are more time consuming to verify and unload from our machines.

◦ Parts that have many small, sharp, acute angles and small details (such as the frills in a dress), which tend to melt back into the scrap plastic and become difficult to remove from the sheet.

◦ Parts that have many disjointed cuts (such as an array of small holes or a lace pattern), which take longer to cut since the laser cutting head has to stop and move from cut to cut more often than when it cuts along a continuous path.

2. Pricing for Laser Cutting Page 3 of 29

Expediting costs for laser cutting

The standard turn time for most parts is 3-5 business days assuming you do not need many hundreds or thousands of parts. If you need the parts more quickly, we generally charge 20% – 50% more per expedited day depending on the standard turn time (the percentage is such that the minimum turn will cost double the standard turn price). Here are examples for cutting a minimum order of parts with a standard 3-day turn and standard 5-day turn:

Sample prices for expedited service on a 3-day standard-turn order:

Turn time Price

3 business days $25 base price for standard turn time 2 bus. days $33.25, added 33% ($8.25) to base price 1 bus. days $41.50, added 66% Same-day service$50, added 100% (double the price of standard turn)

Sample prices for expedited service on a 5-day standard-turn order:

Turn time Price

5 business days $25 base price for standard turn time 4 bus. days $30, added 20% ($5) to base price 3 bus. days $35, added 40% 2 bus. days $40, added 60% 1 bus. day $45, added 80% Same-day service$50, added 100% (double the price of standard turn)

To place an expedited order, fill out the quote request form [http://www.pololu.com/laserquote/new], indicating that you would like your order to be expedited. After receiving your quote, you will be given a list of expedited options for the order.

File creation costs for laser cutting

If you are not able to provide a vector-format file of your parts for laser cutting (DXF, DWG, CDR, AI, SVG, or PDF file), we might be able to draw your part on the computer for you for $60 per hour with a $15 minimum.

To request a quote that includes file creation, please submit a standard file type in the quote request form that communicates exactly the part you need. The file can be any file type that we can read, such as a text file with a written description, a scan of a hand sketch (JPG, GIF, BMP, PDF), a mock-up in Word, Paint, or Excel, etc. For more information, please see Section 5.

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3. Materials for Laser Cutting

We can laser cut plastics, woods, rubbers, foams, papers, and thin metals as long as they do not contain chlorine. Depending on the material, there is usually no limit to the thinnest sheet we can cut, and the thickest sheet we can cut is typically 1" (24 mm). We stock some woods and various plastics including acrylic, ABS, Mylar, Delrin®, PETG, and styrene, and you are welcome to mail us material or have suppliers ship us material directly. A complete list of materials is available on the quote request form [http://www.pololu.com/laserquote/new].

Materials we can laser cut

We can cut the following materials. If you do not see your material listed, we would be happy to try cutting it as long as it does not contain chlorine (please submit a quote request and provide details about your material in the special instructions section of the quote request form).

• Plastics: ◦ ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene)

◦ Acrylic (also known as Plexiglas, Lucite, PMMA)

◦ Delrin (POM, acetal) – for a supplier, try McMaster-Carr [http://www.mcmaster.com/].

◦ High density polyethylene (HDPE) – melts badly

◦ Kapton tape (Polyimide)

◦ Mylar (polyester)

◦ Nylon – melts badly

◦ PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol)

◦ Polyethylene (PE) – melts badly

◦ Polypropylene (PP) – melts somewhat

◦ Styrene

◦ Two-tone acrylic – top color different than core material, usually for custom instrumentation panels, signs, and plaques.

• Thin metals: ◦ Stainless steel (up to 0.060")

◦ Spring steel (up to 0.060")

• Foam: ◦ Depron foam – often used for RC planes.

◦ EPM

◦ Gator foam – foam core gets burned and eaten away compared to the top and bottom hard shell.

• Other: ◦ Cloths (leather, suede, felt, hemp, cotton)

◦ Magnetic sheets

◦ Papers

◦ Rubbers (only if they do not contain chlorine) – for a supplier, try McMaster-Carr

[http://www.mcmaster.com/]

◦ Teflon (PTFE, Polytetrafluoroethylene) – for a supplier, try McMaster-Carr [http://www.mcmaster.com/].

3. Materials for Laser Cutting Page 5 of 29

◦ Woods (MDF, balsa, birch, poplar, red oak, cherry, holly, etc.) – we stock 3 mm birch plywood; for other types of wood, try Midwest Products [http://www.midwestproducts.com/].

Materials we cannot laser cut

We do not or cannot cut the following materials:

• Most metals – We cannot cut most metals. The two exceptions are thin sheets of stainless or spring steel (up

to 0.060" thick). We also stock an acrylic-based, dual-tone plastic with a faux-metal finish on one side. If you need thicker metal parts, you might consider a water jet cutting service.

• Polycarbonate (PC, Lexan) – we stopped cutting Lexan due to the fumes.

• Any material containing chlorine

• PVC (Cintra) – contains chlorine

• Vinyl – contains chlorine

• Glass – we can engrave glass, but we cannot cut it.

• Fiberglass

• Printed circuit board (FR4 and other material types)

• Carbon fiber

• High-density polyethylene (HDPE) thicker than 1/16" – We are unable to cut HDPE thicker than 1/16", and

HDPE of any thickness melts badly when laser cut.

Pictures of some acrylic colors we stock

Below are pictures of most of the 1/8" acrylic colors we stock. Your monitor will probably not show the colors exactly, but the pictures should give you some idea of what the colors are like. We do stock other colors and materials: see the

quote request form [http://www.pololu.com/laserquote/new] for a complete list.

Gold mirrored acrylic.

Yellow mirrored acrylic.

Clear “silver” mirrored acrylic.

3. Materials for Laser Cutting Page 6 of 29

Opaque black acrylic #2025.

Transparent red acrylic #2423.

Translucent red acrylic (#2283

or similar).

Red mirrored acrylic.

Transparent fluorescent red

acrylic #2085.

Transparent yellow acrylic

(#2208 or similar).

Translucent green acrylic

(#2108 or similar).

Transparent fluorescent green

acrylic #2154.

Green mirrored acrylic. Transparent green acrylic

Translucent dark-blue acrylic

(#2114 or similar).

Transparent blue acrylic #2424.

#2092.

3. Materials for Laser Cutting Page 7 of 29

Translucent blue acrylic #2051.

Translucent turquoise acrylic

#2308.

Transparent light-blue acrylic

#2069.

Transparent gray acrylic (#2064,

#2074, or similar).

Sapphire blue mirrored acrylic.

Opaque white acrylic #3015.

Translucent white or “sign

white” acrylic #7328.

Transparent amber acrylic

#2422.

Very translucent white acrylic

#2447.

Translucent orange acrylic

#2119.

Transparent clear acrylic.

Transparent fluorescent orange

acrylic #2086.

3. Materials for Laser Cutting Page 8 of 29

Translucent brown acrylic

#2418.

Translucent pink acrylic #3119. Purple mirrored acrylic. Translucent violet acrylic #2287.

Translucent ivory acrylic #2146. Pink mirrored acrylic.

Two-tone acrylic stocked: We also stock two-tone acrylic with either a black top and white core, or a brushedaluminum top and black core (in both 1/8" and 1/16" thicknesses). You can have other laser-safe two-tone materials shipped to us from suppliers such as Johnson Plastics [http://www.johnsonplastics.com/].

Special-order acrylic colors available:

• Translucent acrylic in orange, yellow, purple, turquoise, and ivory

• Transparent acrylic in orange, dark blue, and green

• Transparent neon or fluorescent acrylic in red/pink, orange, green, and blue

• Mirrored acrylic in red, yellow, green, blue, purple, and bronze

General information about some plastics

We mainly laser cut the following plastics, for which we have provided some additional information:

Acrylic (PMMA, Plexiglas)

Acrylic, also known as PMMA, is a type of plastic with a variety of brand name manufacturers, including Plexiglas, Lucite, Acrylite, and Optix. We stock different brands depending on what our suppliers carry. We can cut up to 1" acrylic. The thicknesses in inches of acrylic is nominal; the actual thicknesses are in millimeters and vary by + or – 10% within the same sheet.

Acrylic is the cheapest plastic to laser cut. It is attractive (it has a glossy surface), comes in a variety of thicknesses and colors, and the edges of laser-cut acrylic have a “laser-polished” look. Acrylic is somewhat brittle (you have to be careful not to crack if you want to drill holes after laser cutting; it is better to have us laser-cut all screw holes and mounting holes). Acrylic parts will crack or chip (especially at sharp corners) if you drop them on a hard surface. Acrylic usually comes with a paper masking on both sides.

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