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A project log for The Technique of Laser

Laser cutter usage notes

peter-walshPeter Walsh 11/01/2020 at 16:232 Comments

Political signs make great cutting stock for CO2 lasers, and starting Wednesday you can get a boatload of them for free!


The official term for the stiff material is "corrogated plastic"(*), and it's basically corrugated cardbord using polypropylene instead of paper. It's light, stiff, strong, and waterproof.

Here's a desk organizer made from it. The pieces were lasercut and then hot-glued together. (Then glued to a wooden base.)


Here's a closeup showing the corrugation style of the board.



Some older types might be PVC, and you shouldn't cut these on the laser, so be sure to perform a flame test on anything you find before you start cutting. Modern signs should be polypropylene, which is fine to cut.

(*) Some trade names:  Cartonplast®, Polyflute, Coroplast, FlutePlast, IntePro, Proplex, Correx, Twinplast, Corriflute or Corflute

Discussions

Ken Yap wrote 11/01/2020 at 19:34 point

>coroplast

It has several trade names. Around here they're called corflute.

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Peter Walsh wrote 11/01/2020 at 20:15 point

Thanks for the tip. Updated with several trade names (and links) from the wikipedia page your tip led me to.

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