Paper Sculpting

[tim1724]

I love the passionflower!

[kelley1]

A passion flower! That’s some mighty fine detail.

[kelley1]

Worthy of a bookmark; thanks for the details.

[steven.kroiss]

Just for you.

[erikniells]

I got a pair of magnifying glasses from Amazon, they have a light and four different levels of magnification that snap on. I do pop-up paper projects (not laser, at least not yet) and they are essential.

[ovm.steve]

Dollar Tree has the best prices I have found on poster board and foam board. I use both for projects and they are a very affordable prototyping material.

[ArtEnablesMe]

Wow, now that’s just AWESOME.

NEVER STOP creating…

[steven.kroiss]

Good Call, I was considering one of those big ones that hang off an adjustable arm.

[steven.kroiss]

I’ll have to check it out by me and I’ll report back. Right now I’ve found it for $3 for a sheet of white, and that’s pretty cheap as I get 3 whole sheets from 1.

[ovm.steve]

I think I gave $1 for 2 full size boards.

[steven.kroiss]

Sounds like I have some shopping to do, thanks!

[ovm.steve]

Up until covid, we had a paper company in town and I would buy hundreds of sheets of heavy card stock (1/32" and 1/16") and they would cut it down to 11x20 for free. It was super cheap and really cut nicely.

[eflyguy]

I get it at Hobby Lobby, they have a clearance section in the back corner and all the damaged stuff ends up there for pennies on the dollar. Just buckled corners and such, so plenty good for the GF…

[evansd2]

Nice work, interesting designs.

@steven.kroiss

the fan pressure is too high

You might find these two posts interesting:

Vacuum tray replacement for cutting lightweight materials

The chase: [image] So I made a fullsize tray replacement vacuum table. The idea is that it allows me to cut very lightweight materials without worrying about flyaways. A quick disclaimer: It’s possible that this is a fire risk, airflow and contained spaces and all. I feel as though it isn’t, but I’m just a dude with a laser who thinks he’s got decent risk assessment skills. Use your noodle if you try something like this Say you wanted to cut some rolled trace paper: [imag…

And

How to manually control the air assist fan power

Disclaimer: If you are unsure of either of the following: “why would you want to do this?” “what problems could this cause?” … then turn around and walk away, this isn’t for you (I am only half kidding!) The bottom line is that this may elevate your fire risk, reduce your air assist fan life, or cause a change to the fumes generated by your cuts. It may not do these things too, there’s just not enough data to say for sure either way. I’ve been using them for some time wit…

[steven.kroiss]

Good Idea, I’ll check it out and see what mine has

[steven.kroiss]

OMG thank you!! I’ll have to test these out and see what I can do. This should also help with some of the streaking I get from cutting with the fan blowing from the one angle.

[evansd2]

@steven.kroiss

should also help with some of the streaking I get from cutting

I attempted to quantify this a bit later in that thread. If you didn’t scroll all the way down:

How to manually control the air assist fan power

OK so the bottom line: reducing the air assist does reduce engraving residue. All of these are engraves in solid maple, 750/full/vary power/270 lpi No reduction. This is a deep engrave, so you expect a lot of residue. [image] Level 4 reduction, still a bit of airflow but severely reduced. Noticeably less residue. [image] Level 5 reduction, completely blocked. Even less than level 4. [image] Side by side comparisons of the full power/no airflow engraves. Notice the reflection on the t…

[kmblair]

I have the glasses but the people I paid to help organize my house hid the lenses…

[erikniells]

How fun! Like a game? I personally don’t need to hire people to hide things from me; I spend many hours each week looking for things I just put down a minute ago.