I finally used the free design I had uploaded a long time ago to make some foam swords for the kids. I also made a shield.
The kids really like them.
Here is a link to the design I originally uploaded:
I made the design before I had a GF. So I had to change the it a bit so I could use 1/2" foam mats I found at Walmart. If you want the updated design, let me know.
These are sooooo cute! I might need to try making some too. How sturdy are they for play fighting?
I just made them. They seem pretty good, but they have not been put through the “kid test” yet.
They look great in the colored foam! (I picked up some black foam but haven’t tried it yet.) 
Oh, very cute indeed. You need to do parties!
Great work! Please share the updated design! My kids would love to do battle and we have a nice stock of 1/2" foam mats.
Is that foam safe to laser? Be careful cutting vinyl.
Outstanding! Love 'em all!
What kind of foam? In the craft section?
And what kind of glue?
In the home section, you will find “foam mats”. They are usually about 2’ x 2’ and comes in packs of 4 that interconnect.
For the glue, I tried both a hot glue gun and lepage contact cement. The contact cement is stronger but a lot harder to work with. So for most of the swords, I’m using the hot glue gun. I used the higher temperature one to give me more time to position things.
I’ve seen many videos online about cutting EVA foam with a laser-cutter. I think it’s safe enough. There is no vinyl in it.
the best kind of glue for this kind of thing is a contact adhesive, its very similar to the construction for Larp (Live Action Role Play) weapons.
What are the settings for cutting the varying thicknesses?
That’s the Lepage stuff I used. (contact cement) My only issue with it, is that you have to cover both surfaces. In some cases, one surface is smaller than the other (like the bird on the shield). I can easily cover the back of the bird, but I’m not sure where to put the glue on the shield itself so it matches with the bird. I guess I could outline it with a pencil or something first. But it was a little more complicated than just using a hot glue gun.
Ethylene-vinyl acetate
I stand corrected. I just looked it up, and there is Vinyl right in the name.
Although it still seems like it’s “laser-safe”.
Universal laser says we can laser cut and engrave it:
https://www.ulsinc.com/materials/eva-foam
There is also this link that discusses it:
Epilog has a tutorial with foam stickies (EVA foam) right on their website at:
https://www.epiloglaser.com/resources/sample-club/halloween-invitations.htm
There’s also a lot of youTube videos about it.
It’s scary, but I still think it’s ok.
Vinyl is not the issue. Chlorine is. So Poly(VinylChloride) is the no-no.
https://community.glowforge.com/t/request-tutorial-for-custom-settings/10862/10Sorry I did not share it earlier. I’ve had a really busy couple of week.
Here is the SVG that I used to make the final swords (right-click, save as).
My kids played with them with friends for an entire evening. They were not gentle. At the end of the night, you could feel that the swords were much “looser” than before. I’m not sure how well they will handle it in the long run.
I had to cut them with the bed out of the GF, because they were too thick to place on the bed.
I used the settings of 180 zooms, 55 pews, 2 passes (on a pro). This would cut the black EVA mats very well, but some of the colored EVA mats did not cut as well. I need to experiment with making 2 passes, but at different focus depths.
I used the original oneEigth and oneSixtheens files from the previous post to make the decorations on the first sword.
Those are awesome, Is it possible to get the file
I want to start making a Halo ODST helmet out of foam
but these swords would be a great practice item
Thanks Andrew