First shapes off the laser cutter

While waiting for a delivery of acrylic sheets (ok, it was only ordered a few hours ago and it's Sunday evening!) we've been playing about with the few sheets of clear plastic we got with the cutter, to find out which settings work best for us.

We found that cutting at 15mA, 20mm/sec works really well for 3mm acrylic.
Any slower and the beam reflects off the honeycomb bed and pits the reverse of the plastic. Any faster and the beam doesn't always cut all the way through on the tight corners of intricate shapes.



Here are some example logos for a new shop opening soon; it's called NIX and offers an outlet for cottage industries and artisans. The idea is really simple. For a fixed monthly fee, you get a shelf on which you can display and sell your wares.



Obviously these would look much better in coloured and/or opaque acrylic, but they're just test pieces to see what the laser cutter can do. And so far, the results are pretty impressive!

line drawing exported as dxf for importing into NewlyDraw

Here's the original business logo, to compare the results to: