Engraving/Cutting Acrylic Rods

So I came across this website that sells plastic, Acme Plastics.

I see they have both cast and extruded acrylic tubes.

I thought, “Hey, that’d be cool to make something from that!” Since there are cast acrylic is an option, I immediately thought, “That’d look awesome if engraved and then lit from the bottom!”

One could have a single LED in the base with a coin cell battery and the LED would be pointed up the axis of the tube. To be honest, the idea came to me when I thought it was a rod (solid tube), but perhaps one could cut out a circle to “plug” the bottom of the tube and help direct light up the walls of the tube. More thought would probably have to go into this to make it work for a tube, but a rod may/would work better.

Anyone thinking of doing something like this? Perhaps you could use this to make a set of “icicle lights” or something?!

Edit: I had to click on the picture in order to see the base of the tube.

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Sounds like a cool idea. :relaxed: (That rod is kind of pricey though. Eeep!)

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I think inventables has tubes, too…

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I am collecting WAY too many material sites, but thanks for the new one to explore.

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Here is another plastic supplier that I use these days:

http://www.estreetplastics.com/

I like their sizes and prices.

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Nice. It’s too bad that so far nobody is offering GF sized stuff (hopefully we will be big enough that someone will) since 24 isn’t helpful if you have no way to cut acrylic other than a laser (yes, I can saw or score but that is never awesome)

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Right now I have limited access to a 60 watt Epilog so no size problems on a 12 x 24 bed but I’ve still gotten pretty good using the scoring tool you get from Home Depot for acrylic so I don’t expect it to be a problem if/when I get my GF.

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Probably not a good question for PRU users, but there was early talk about about the possibility of temporarily defeating the front crumb tray removal panel lockout. Although frowned upon, I wondered if that is a possibility. Then you could insert a 24 inch panel, leaving some hanging out in order to do a quick cut across it to cut it to a manageable size.

I score and break my acrylic all the time…its not bad once you get the hang of it…
I use one of these.

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‘Cough’ Passthrough ‘cough’

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I bought a basic, as I will bring this to classes I teach on making, etc, and didn’t want the hassle of a class 4 laser.

That works for acrylic, but delrin, wood, etc. Not that all of these can’t be self-cut to size with a saw, just annoying that everything has to be resized. Not GF’s fault of course…

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I have been eyeing small craft type table saws. Thought about building one. It really would come in handy for dimensioning sheet goods to fit into the Glowforge. Just keeping my eye out. I don’t have too much of a problem with scoring the 1/4" acrylic, but anything bigger won’t work. And I have lots of wood too big for the bed and needs some power tools like this back at home.

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We touched on this in another thread, but I recently bought a Dremel Saw-Max. Small, easy to use, and stores in a small canvas bag. Definitely not for everyone, but makes short work of making GF-friendly stock from larger sources.

Might be worth a look.

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“Hypothetically” you could do that. It would require 2 neodymium magnets. Something about 1.5mm thick wouldn’t work as not having enough magnetic pull but ones about 3mm thick would work. The GF door ones are rectangular but round ones work as long as they are of a sufficient size to cover the same area.

All hypothetically speaking of course. Like Dan I wouldn’t want to suggest anyone bypass the interlocks. Someone who did would want to wear laser safe glasses and keep others out of the room while the door is open.

The Redsail is a 24x18in bed so I have a decent supply of 24in material.

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Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.

I thought this method was mentioned last year, but wasn’t sure if this highly not recommended action was still a possibility.

I purchased Laser Safety Glasses about a year ago and already told the dogs they would be locked out of the room they’ll share with Geordi G’Forge when material cut downs are in process.

Thanks again!

I only mentioned it because Dan brought it up originally. He was correct - it is doable. Hypothetically speaking of course :slightly_smiling_face:

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I thought that he did, but did not want to throw him under the legal team’s bus. :grin:

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He did say e could not condone such behavior just that it was possible. I’m not condoning it for other people either - just reporting that it’s possible to do and how one might do it :slightly_smiling_face:

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