I have been thinking on a better way to do hinges and wandering through that rabbit hole I discovered another. If you want a hole side to side, then make it top to bottom and turn it sideways 
The bottom one on the right is cut with the hole the usual way, the one next to it has the hole going side to side you can see from the scrap it was cut out of, the shape of them and how many can fit the smallest piece of scrap,
Here is the design 
This design is for PG acrylic ynmv.
Thatās efficient! 
Great idea and adaptable to hinges as mentioned.
Surprised that @Jules didnāt post her version of small enough scrap.
She is being shy, so I will do it for her
Yes , but she was engraving the whole grain of rice and not a scrap piece of it that would otherwise be thrown out.
Trueā¦it was whole grain rice. 
Oh, and thatās a really nice design, thanks for the file. Although, can you add tiny āhornsā to the inside of the clasp? That way, the hole is really discouraged from finding its way out. [does that even make sense? it does to meā¦]
Just for fun, although the tolerances are probably too tight for acrylic ā the pieces might fuse together. 
This was my first try,
I made the differently colored one first and decided to change the design rather than doing the restā¦
No!!! Iāve been spending the last week trying to decide what size was worth keeping as far as scrap, because my scrap pile is so huge I can no longer comfortably walk in my kitchenā¦Iāve just finished telling myself if I canāt fit a bookmark on it, to toss it out. Iāve finally gone from about 200+sheets of material (not including the bins of small scrap I was holding on to and finally let go) to about 60 sheetsā¦if I think I can squeeze smaller useful things in there, I might never be able to cook againā¦Iām just going to pretend I never saw this.
Good thinking though, Iāve been working through hinge designs that follow similar patterns.
I just got new sawblades for my scroll saw to turn the holey sheets into small scraps that fit in the various coffee cans and Iced tea cans etc that I attempt to organize into long thin pieces, roughly squarish retangular, 4 sided squarish or triangles from ācirclesā that are perfect for these, and of course matching finger long pieces. Of course I need one for each material, if there is enough volume to make a difference, or at least to separate plywood, hardwood, and acrylic.
Iām afraid Iām out of space to store any more tools. Was about to buy a lathe a few weeks ago so we can turn our own rotors, but no where to store anything. The garage barely fits the car. I almost contemplated buying a shed (they are on sale at Costco at the end of the month), but decided against that too, I really didnāt intend to live here forever, and I donāt want to get too comfortable.
Of late I have had enough discomfort that I feel really sorry for the younguns that will grow up in a different universe than the one I grew up in. The bank account will not last forever, but barring something like a hurricane, this will either be my last house, or it will be better than the one after. 
I made the mistake of thinking that my husbandās company would transfer us again. They moved us to CA, but I thought it was temporary. At the time, house prices were still reasonably low. I shouldāve bought something then, but the stress of moving cross country and the issue that came up because of it didnāt make me want to buy a house here. Then, just like I thought it would, when we were commited to buy, my husband was transferred back east, which was supposed to be permanent. Unfortunately, they changed their minds, told us 8 monthsā¦then after a few months, decided they really need him back in CA, so we came back very abruptly after 4 months.
There was no time to plan and even search for a new placeā¦and in that short time period, real estate skyrocketedā¦So, owning a house here is out of the question now. Even a condo in the area is out of reach When we went east, I could get a 2 bedroom condo here for about 200k, when we came back (and even now) those same condos run 400-600k.
Oh well.
I have been shocked here recently as the Bush crash made realestate real cheap that did not recover. Seeing the handwriting on the wall last election I sold at give-away prices as I was seeing my saving vanish and could not build the 4 - 500k townhouses that were possible at that location, So now someone else is building them.
We have not yet seen the major crash as we are like the coyote that has not realized he ran off the cliff, but those with the money have been buying everything up expecting to keep increasing rents forever. However between all the job losses and evictions blocked, when the coyote looks down, the foreclosures and evictions will put a big dent in house prices, just as 10 years ago. California is a somewhat special case as the amount of housing stock has been dropping tremendously, and just getting back to before will be steps back more than forward, as the fires are not going away.
A hurricane could do that here, but if it does I will not have much to move anyway,
The ridges work well for wood to fix a sloppy kerf and keep things tight, but that is because the wood gives and squishes.
With plastic, it just tends to force a crack on thin projects, or if thick enough body to resist a crack, will force a visible air gap on the pieces (no give with plastic).
I ended up giving 2 smallish boxes of scraps to friends who do mixed media art - Iām hoping theyāll use them and assuage my guilt at otherwise throwing them out!
I thought I could use mine as mini roofing shingles, but they were too thick to look nice. Today is garbage day, and I feel lighter having been rid of them.
I should look to see if there are takers in the art world here.
Have you all seen the Make notebook on CNC joinery? Scroll down a bit and there are some great examples of different types of edge slots with detents
Thank you; I had not considered that about the acrylic. Although, I did see them incorporated into a design for a top, so it wouldnāt come apart when it inevitably goes off the table. and why do I know that?
@ekla thanks for the link
Just got some acrylic resin, I think I will try a ācrazy quiltā mosaic and see if itās worth keeping the little scrap. Yes, I hate to throw out stuff that might have a use, but this is a small house, soā¦
