Basic tutorial for making acrylic molds with a laser cutter.
Video
Materials
- Acrylic sheet (thickness 2mm, 4mm, 5mm)
- Acrylic glue
- bottle
- needle
Tools and Equipments
- Laser Cutter
Directions
Design Mold
Design a mold using software. In this case, we used adobe Ai and saved as PDF.
Download file here (t means thickness of acrylic sheet) : 20171110_rabbit
Laser Cutting
Insert acrylic sheet. Fit the sheet to upper left. Move the file to Laser Cutter and set Laser preferences. Cut the acrylic sheet with the laser cutter. Take out the acrylic sheets. Cut another thickness of acrylic sheet.
Prepare Bonding
Here are acrylic sheets cut with Laser Cutter. We will make 2 sets of molds. (Set 1 : A+C+E+F, Set 2 : B+D)
Acrylic Glue
Transfer some acrylic glue to the applicator bottle.
Set 1 (part E + C)
Put part E and part C. Align the position of acrylic part.
Glue
Fit the together tight. Use the needle to put the glue into the gap between the acrylic sheets. Hold it tightly for a few seconds. Add more glue if it looks not enough.
Set 1 (part E + C + A)
Put part C and E on part A. Align the position of acrylic part. Put the glue into the gap.
Set 1 (part E + C + A + F)
Add an inner part F to allow air flow. Put part F on part E+C+A.
Set 2 (part D + B)
Put part D on part B.
Glue
Put the glue into the gap.
Done
The molds are done!
Download
- Vector data of a mold for laser cutter (t means thickness of acrylic plates)
Other recipes
- Application using this mold : Silicone Bending Actuator
- more recipes using Laser Cutter : Origami Robot (coming soon!)