Howdy All - Has anyone found a source for laser-safe mahjong (or mah jongg) tiles? Because producers favor melamine (known for dangerous out-gassing) I have not dared to burn blanks that are commercially available because they do not list materials clearly. I have been designing a custom set and would like to use actual tiles (they feel so great) vs. layering with wood and acrylic? I am happy to share the design as a thank you to anyone who has a trusted source! Much appreciated!
6 Likes
So youâre looking for a solid block of acrylic with rounded corners? Clarifying what mean by âactualâ tiles!
My set is bone & bamboo, but itâs from before acrylic was invented 
My first suggestion would be thick 1/4â acrylic, and round the corners by heating them to ~300â°F and pushing the corners in with a silicon glove. You could do it with a heat gun or in an oven.
Then engrave and paint fill your patterns.
If you wanted to get fancy you could even build a mold so you can squish the heated acrylic in and guarantee all the tiles would be identical.
Or these, which donât say what theyâre made of, but per this post on Reddit have been successfully laser etched:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFLS3K55?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
8 Likes
These guys have lots of options.
9 Likes
Oh wow. Some of those are gorgeous!
Now I kinda want to make a new mahjong set 
7 Likes
I was thinking the same thing! How cool to have a personalized set!
6 Likes
Caveat though⌠They say itheir tiles are acrylic, but that doesnât mean itâs PMMA which is what we think of as acrylic that comes in Sheets.
The only thing that I would say seems pretty sure laser safe or laser-performant in there are the wooden backed ones and only the Wood side. I also question whether or not melamine is particularly dangerous.
All plastics (and really almost anything you laser) will off gas things that you donât want to be breathing but the question is whether or not it continues to be toxic after youâve lasered it and/or continues off gassing. If it does off gas post lasering it wonât be forever, I would suspect that lasering melamine is about as dangerous as lasering any other plastic â with the caveat for things that create chlorides like PVC which is more dangerous than other plastics, as its byproducts will damage your machine.
Further reading on material safety:
6 Likes
Great suggestions! Thank you. I want to purchase tile I can engrave so they have the wonderful feel and clacking sound of more standard tiles but I love your suggestion to experiment while I search for safe blanks! I will message you with my files when they are complete if you are interested.
6 Likes
Fantastic! I will browse!! This is a great resources and I am excited already!
5 Likes
@kzrivera please don´t forget to post pictures of your work to inspire the rest of us.
4 Likes
Thank you @reynoso ! I forgot!
Here is a very rough draft of the line reader card on the top (to be back etched on acrylic and the blue bar painted). Below that are tile concepts I have so far. I live in the country in the high desert of New Mexico and wanted a southwest twist! Art is AI generated w/ ChatGPT which gives me transparent backgrounds saving me time in Adobe letting me play with ideas faster! Itâs getting there!
9 Likes
I never knew the rules for Mahjong. Guess cause Iâve only ever played it on my phone or computer, so I thought it was just a matter of matching tiles. Interesting!
3 Likes
The computer game is a completely different game.
The tabletop is more like Gin Rummy where you need to make a certain number of sets or runs before anyone else does, and youâre all using the same deck/tiles.
2 Likes
Very interesting! I havenât played rummy in probably a few years. We used to play every night, but then quit for some reason. Probably because we had kids and life went berserk. 
Just never got back into it.
2 Likes
When I was in college (which is pre-University in the UK), a group of us would break out the folding table and majh-jong set after going out for a few pints and a curry. Have no recollection how to play now.. 
3 Likes
Itâs one of my favourite games, but requires exactly 4 people. One of those minutes to learn, lifetime to master games
There are âAmericanâ mahjong rules that I donât know/understand where they decide each year which hands are allowed and which arenât, which seems wasteful to me, but I guess that organisation has the only (AFAIK) app version of the actual game rather than the tile matching game. My sister found it, and pays the membership for access to the app.
1 Like