The main area that I felt I would struggle in greatly was creating the back template for the LED strips. This is an area that I struggle in because I lack the ability to fully visualize what I want.
My first failure came in with ordering the acrylic. Even before getting the material, I had failed in realizing the actual dimensions of the acrylic, thinking that a 12” x 12” piece would suffice. However, after receiving the material, I realized how small it was, compared to what I had envisioned. To solve this issue, I then proceeded to get a clear polycarbonate that was 36” x 36”, which should be plenty of space for my design to be fleshed out. However, this also comes at the issue of not being able to use the laser cutter to etch out the holes. I would have to use a drill (which I am more comfortable with after doing some tests).
My second failure came with trying to use the laser cutter. It was my first time ever using the laser cutter and I was unsure of the steps needed to make the laser cutter fully work. I checked back with the manual and it said that the user will need to focus the laser. Prior to this, I had also received a training, telling me to hit the “auto-focus” button. These two experiences clicked and I pressed the autofocus button, thinking that it will just simply focus the laser for me. However, the bed of the laser cutter started to rise… and rise some more…. and rise…. then started tilting, and then started banging up and down against the laser cutter violently. I still do not know why this happened, but it luckily didn’t cause an issues.
After that mishap, I proceeded to do some test cuts in the acrylic and cut out some different designs. I wouldn’t label this too much as a failure, but more of a learning process on how to balance the power, passes, and speed. Overall, I think there are a lot of improvements that I can make in the cuts, but I like the way they turned out. Below is an image of the cut pieces that I made.
Even though I am going to use Polycarbonate for the final product, the laser cutter taught me a lot about how to approach cutting and drilling holes into my design. For the Polycarbonate, I’ll first mark the design on the plastic encasing. I will then identify areas that will need to contain a clip and drill holes accordingly. I think this will allow me to get the best final product, while also maintaining that vintage aesthetic that I want to incorporate into the design.
Polycarb is really easy to cut on the router, I’ll send you the contact info for the students who are putting the workshop together on discord. You will need to cut it down before putting it in the router, which is easy to do by scoring and snapping. Definitely check youtube if you are confused about cutting it.