Hey guys not sure if this has made its way on to the fourm. I kow there are some cosplyers in the GF family here is a video how to use pepakra and laser curting. I have tried it at my local maker space and it worked really well. https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=DDsPivUTj0s
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Can you cut foam in a laser? I would have thought some of the chemicals you burn would be a no no.
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EVA foam has been discussed several times on the forums over the past year. It is very laserable.
Edit: Here’s a search of the forum for EVA foam: http://community.glowforge.com/search?q=eva%20foam
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Can you? Absolutely. Most of the time it creates some pretty nasty compounds. Like with plastics, you can find foams made of all sorts of material. Foam made of polyurethane, polyethylene, polyester, nylon, etc., these are all fine. Like with everything else, avoid foams made of chlorinated compounds unless you can be certain that combustion doesn’t produce HCl (or other compounds - I haven’t looked but I know brominated compounds seem to sometimes be employed as a flame retardant, does anyone know if laser cutting those materials creates HBr?) as a byproduct.
EDIT: as mentioned above, forgot EVA.
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Yup it possible. Here is a demo https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=LCTon-q-SFs
It does need ventilation but it’s not too bad.
EVA foam is great to work with! I’m not a cosplayer, but I did use it a lot for Halloween this year. It’s amazing how strong, flexible and versatile it can be.
As a couple of examples, I made custom trick or treat bags for my kids based on Jupiter, Mercury and the moon. I expected that we would just trash them after the big night, but they are so solid that we might just save them for next year (after a new paint job, most likely).
And here’s Hermes’ staff using ‘craft foam’, which is just thinner EVA.
I’m really excited to see what can be done with the GF next year.
On a related note, I’ve learned a ton from these guys (I think they may have been referenced in a previous post): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC27YZdcPTZM24PgjztxanEQ
They only use their laser from time to time, but are great at explaining their techniques.
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Already getting ideas for next years Comic Con.
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I made a Rick Head on the computer and ran it through Pepakura to make the paper mask. It took forever to cut out by hand. Thanks for the video!
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Looks awesome!!
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