The first one I printed, I assumed the material was 3mm. It was closer to 3.1mm, so it did not work. This kinda of design requires pretty tight tolerances.
Q: You have a $5k laser and hundreds of dollars of resources to make something that costs five bucks. Why?
A: Because you have a $5k laser and hundreds of dollars of resources.
Joking aside, I have made an enormous amount of home grown fixes and replacement parts with the laser, 3D printer, and a shop full of tools.
A lot could not have been done any other way.
Still, occasionally, I find myself behind several hours of design and laser time to make a thing that sells in the dollar store.
In my defense, I can only say “It came out pretty good, didn’t it”…
I sometimes make things I could have purchased cheaply because I am picky about some aspect(s) of how it looks, what it is made of and/or, how it functions.
You may have been able to buy it cheaper, but then you also have to leave home, drive to the store, put up with a bunch of people in the store, stand in line at the register, drive back home… nope, I’d much rather play with my GF and make something at home, if for no other reason than just to say “I made this!” Good job, and thanks for sharing!
Good luck. It has problems with the thickness of the material. My cheap calipers only go to one decimal place. The first one I tried 3mm, but in reality it was 3.12mm those fractions add up.
If I were to make it again, I would pad the height of the font and back walls and sand down the top sides on a belt sander to make it flush.