Quick Tip / Thicker Materials (A Work Round)

[Spooky]

Like most of us we all wish we had a laser just that bit bigger or more powerful (although explaining the cost to the wife can be hazardous:)) to enable thicker materials to be cut.

I know with my 6840 I'd like to reliably cut 6mm MDF at a speed a little better than snails pace so that got me to thinking.....

I'm currently building a scale model of an apache (yes again) that is quite complex and has a LOT of parts (300+) now cutting all of those at 4 speed 80 power is going to take quite a while so rather than use 6mm MDF I used 3mm MDF and ran it at 16 speed 65 power, yes 4 times faster and still got a reliable cut through. The original plan was mirrored across so that when the pieces are joined the small taper or kerf doesn't notice. Some no more nails rapid from Focus to glue it together with soon had me in business. To look at you would have no idea that the MDF had been cut then laminated but the time saving sure did notice.

So where possible if your using thicker material in the way of ply or mdf give a thought to laminating it together, the benefits are excellent (even down to the cost of material)

StarLOC on here may have some better thoughts on what glue to use (he's the resident glue guy:))

best wishes

Dave

[Daven]

Good tip Dave.

I would think titebond III would work well for MDF or Ply

Dave

[Spooky]

I'll give it a go mate

as an addition the best way I have found to clamp the layers is some bulldog clips from Poundland, £1 for 50 clips so well worth buying, I use them for attaching weights to warped ply and they are just the right size for fixing 2 layers of 3mm MDF together

best wishes

Dave

ps:I'll get some pics up of the laminated Apache and Patriot Missile Launcher I've just finished.

[StarLoc Adhesives]

For laminating bits together, you are best to avoid aliphatic resin waterbased glues such as titebond ( or other aliphatic resin ) as the water will just evaporate from the edges setting just at the edges and trap moisture in the center ,
the no more nails type should work better as it is very low water content or solvent based ( depending on type ), the best would be epoxy ( but expensive ) or cyanoacrylate ( a few drops on each piece use a fairly slow one and still no clamps would be needed ) or a contact glue such as neoprene or rubber cement ( can be tricky lining bits up )

[Spooky]

Thanks Star,

I'll order up some glue from you I think


best wishes

Dave