Simple Prototyping with a laser...

[Ryan]

This one’s a little silly—but it ended up being a great example of just how useful a shop laser can be.

I needed to relocate the inner door handle on a super lightweight door card for a race car. The goal was to avoid drilling or cutting into the stock early Porsche door structure, so I came up with a slim aluminum bracket to do the job. Simple design, but the hole spacing had to be dead on.

So I sketched it out on the computer… but instead of jumping straight to aluminum, I cut a prototype from 3mm plywood on the laser. It took all of 19 seconds to cut. And sure enough—one of the holes was off by about 2mm. The quick prototype saved me from wasting time and material.

I’ve got a feeling this laser’s going to earn its keep. It’s easy to think of a 55W CO2 machine as more of a crafting gadget, but in practice? It’s shaping up to be a seriously useful shop tool.

 

[rharman]

Most of us have made a template for something but that really takes it up a notch.

 

[Ryan]

Most of us have made a template for something but that really takes it up a notch.

It’s more about the accuracy and the time. This cut took less than 20 seconds and the set up consisted of literally throwing a scrap piece of 3mm ply on the bed - no hold downs or clamps or anything..

 

[PowerWagonBuilder]

I've done this a number of times with thin gauge sheet metal on my plasma table, especially when needing to verify something that a someone else "dimensioned".

 

[niget2002]

I do the same, but I use cereal boxes. My laser is just a diode laser, but it cuts the thin cardboard really fast.

I also use the laser to cut drill templates if I'm mounting something blind.

I've also 3d printed test parts before milling them out of metal.

 

[Ryan]

I do the same, but I use cereal boxes. My laser is just a diode laser, but it cuts the thin cardboard really fast.

I also use the laser to cut drill templates if I'm mounting something blind.

I've also 3d printed test parts before milling them out of metal.

I hadn't thought of using cardboard... even better.

 

[niget2002]

I hadn't thought of using cardboard... even better.

The original CAD... we've come full circle.

Cardboard design
Computer design
Computer design Cardboard

 

[Beerhippie]

My CAD system for cardboard prototyping looks an awful lot like a box cutter, punches, scissors and some lay-out tools. OTOH, it doesn't draw much power.

 

[mike93lx]

The original CAD... we've come full circle.

Cardboard design
Computer design
Computer design Cardboard

Laser cutting cereal boxes may be our peak as a species.

@Ryan one of these would be so nice to have. Template with thin plywood then shoot the final design off to a place like send cut send

 

[Ryan]

Laser cutting cereal boxes may be our peak as a species.

@Ryan one of these would be so nice to have. Template with thin plywood then shoot the final design off to a place like send cut send

I was headed that direction, but just happened to have some scrap aluminum plate laying around. Took me 30 minutes to make two... but had I not done the template first, the whole project would have taken more than an hour.

But yeah, for more complex **** that I don't want to spend the time to cut by hand? Plywood prototypes then off to Send Cut Send for sure...