Plaster molding Trial

I am not so familiar with plaster and molding or casting method. Therefore i using this tests to learn and also see how laser cut will help molding. Here is the plywood laser cut box.

First, i try to quickly make a box and putting different pattern on each sides so six sides could have something to test. It is base on the different type of work laser cut can do that i know which gives the perfect result.

At the top, i cut through a flower pattern holes. It was planned to pour plaster into the box, however they are far too small so i just pour plaster into before cover the box with this piece.

It do worries me a lot that it still a bit damp on the surface of the wood after more than 72 hours. 

At last, i open the box and find the center pattern of the flower at the top piece was cut too thin and cannot remove it...

However the result of recess area (black fill) have the best result i found in this test.

It can also gives you a corner details (only if you have plan it well)

For the score line (blue line) plaster can mold quite detail but it is too thin some may easily rub off. The Chinese character  (牛) i had stick onto the bottom of the box but eventually it just cannot get out from the mold and now become the part of the plaster. I noticed that i had pour the plaster too fast so the air bubble trap in the character and make a void which it is not expected.

From the instruction of the plaster that the maximum strength and detail the plaster i bought can handle is 7:3 plaster : water ratio. However i feel it is not so reliable and i just control the water amount manually with my limited baking skills. ( It do like baking a cake. haha) 

Related posts:

Brief

Concept

Rhino Grasshopper Trial 3

SolidWorks Trial

Working Process (Base)

Working Process (Superstructure)

Virtual 3D Model

The model 3

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VLS 3.50 Laser cutting test file

This file is good for you to test your material is it cut through in any situation. Do this before you cut your actual file!

Time : 37s for 0.54mm box board

Download here: test.ai

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Cutting 3mm Acrylic

3mm Acrylic (900X600) i also bought at Square House Lab cost AUD 25.44

WARNING: Make sure what kind of acrylic type you choose.

Here is the example of wrong settings.


















It "craft" a really wide lines with 0.5mm deep. Obviously it is not cutting through.
It also burn a bit with bad smell.

Lab acrylic i thing is Extruded Acrylic which i can successfully cut through.

At last it cut through happily :)

Lab manager told me that he called the manufacturer of VLS 3.50 and they said our machine have the powder to cut through 7mm acrylic. Therefore, unless you are cutting 7mm (cause you will set as 7.5mm) otherwise using the default setting at the driver is more then enough. (Just remember to add at least 0.5mm in any material you are cutting)

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Cutting 6mm MDF

6 mm MDF (900X 600) bought at Square House cost AUD 7.77. I use the Lab laser cut machine to cut it in (600 X 300) for the VLS 3.50 so it have three pieces.

I am not so sure which type is MDF so i choose the medium wood. Error occur as in box board, it seems have the limit for Wood too.

So 6.35 mm is the maximum for medium wood....

In other to make sure it can cut through +0.5mm will apply to any material. Therefore it will be the same in this MDF situation however for now its limit is 6.35mm, it will be still risky to cut in this setting so i try manual.

















Setting successfully through:

Power: 100%
Speed: 1.7%
DPI: 500
Z-Axis: 6.5mm

\  I am not sure is the laser type different to the square house lab.  In the lab i can cut the same MDF by 3.7% speed. But in VLS 3.50 feels pushing the machine so much already.

It looks really scare when it is cutting the flame is in maximum and burn so much. I found out that when we cutting next to the exhaust hole the flame will suck towards the hole so it burn more on the surface of the material.

The 1st four rows are using 3.7 % speed and close to the exhaust hole. Frame marks are dramatic. It do reduce at the middle sections.

You can see the differences of  3.7% ( the 1st four rows) and 1.7% (bottom four rows). The rectangular hole i draw at 3.7% setting not even drop out.

However, the 1.7% speed still not really perfectly cut through but in this situation just use a cutter slightly cut a bit it is happily come out.

I am not suggest to cut lower than 1.7% due to lower the speed longer the frame burn the surface material. Unless you have the protection material at lab (in that case i prefer cut at lab).

I suggest next time we can try DPI in 1000 that may help to cut through.

I did talk to Lab manager Anthony about this, he suggest the power different between starting cut the file and at the end. Also the material will vary a bit. However he said MDF not really vary much.

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VLS 3.50 laser cutter issue with template

The laser cutting machine we have have a bit issue, the driver not allow us wot cut mat board more than 2.64 mm. If you enter more than that it will show up an error message.

Here is my solution:
Power: 100%
Speed: 8% (or least than 10%)
DPI: 500
Z- Axis: (input your material thickness +5%)














However, I found out the Top left hand corner don't always cut through but with the same setting top right hand corner do a great job.

This is the box board i cut but upside down and showing the back.


I have made a template for this machine and it works fine for me:
VLS3.5 template

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Laser cut limit test

Trying to test the limit of the laser cut on the box board and found out some part will burn into ash during cutting.

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2nd trail for laser cut

The cut finally go through, thanks Tony the workshop manager helps!

 Sort out the cuts pieces by pieces is such a pain

 Although it is a wrong calculation, still quite good to see it looks like a skyscraper.

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Laser cut (with fun!)

Although the 1st trial of laser cut is nearly cutting through the box board, the material, i can say, not bad for image "print" by laser. the burn mark actually give back the details. It is really fun with laser cut!

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