It seems that Tyvek is safe to laze. A Tyvek wallet will cost you $50 on Amazon but that much material won’t cost more than a couple dollars.
It also occurs to me that strong, flexible support/joining pieces could be made from precision-cut Tyvek.
Any other great uses for it?
Also, what glues will stick to it?
I’m not familiar with Tyvek, but when I looked it up in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyvek) I saw this about adhesives:
DuPont recommends starch, dextrin, casein, and animal-based adhesives over most synthetic-based adhesives, emphasizing the effectiveness of water-based and quick-drying glues as the best for bonding Tyvek both to itself and to a variety of substrates. DuPont also claims that the following adhesives are highly effective:
- Water-based synthetic lattices
- Ethylene/vinyl acetate
- Acrylic pressure-sensitive tape
- Solvent-based single-component polyurethane
- Hot glue
Heat-sealing can be used to melt Tyvek and cause it to bond to itself, but this form of bonding tends to create puckers in the otherwise flat material. Dielectric bonding can be effective in some circumstances, as is ultrasonic sealing.
In the world of ultralight backpacking, folks use Tyvek for tent footprints, lightweight jackets, and suchlike, for people who don’t mind the crackliness and lack of breathability. It’s got the interesting quality of not being fully waterproof, but not leaking through either, because liquid causes the Tyvek’s fibers to swell enough that they get damp but then don’t actually let water through.
Guess I didn’t read down far enough. Thanks!
That’s a material I have that I’ll try. This thread about stickers brought up Tyvek which is similar to the materials used to make adhesive stickers that are durable.
Wonder if a defocused beam can weld Tyvek? That would be fun to try.
I sense a new wave of minimalist wallets…
Ooh! And even if it deforms it a bit, a uniform beam should deform it predictably …
Realizing that Tyvek envelopes are those impossible to open shipping bags that come every once and a while. Available at office supply stores. High density polyethylene fiber material has many applications that I’m stumbling across, in addition to @morganstanfield’s outdoors uses, packaging and labeling. I usually have a couple Tyvek bunny suits in my shop when I have to do some really nasty and dirty work involving crawl spaces and attics filled with insulation.
It’s also known as HouseWrap–when you see a new building under construction and the walls have a paper-like substance wrapped around them, you’ll see that it says TYVEK all over it.
Exactly! 
Raw material is cheap and plentiful so there should be some great applications for Glowforge projects.
Grab an envelope at the post office or FedEx to experiment on 
If it does what you want you can get large sheets of it (but not Housewrap sized) from backpacking supply places. Those don’t have a lot of preprinted logo stuff like “Tyvek” or “FedEx” on them, just clean white sheeting.
I have a homemade, hand-cut tyvek wallet that I made and have carried for over a year. I can’t wait for my new glowforge to make another! Thanks for the insight!
You have a good sense of trends @dan and glowfriends
lol. There are probably a hundred designs for those on Instructables and YouTube.
It doesn’t really require a laser. But it is funny how once we get a laser we want to figure out how to use it for everything An exacto knife and metal ruler are probably as effective and faster as creating the design in software and cutting it with the laser.
I once cut a stack of birch sheets with a table saw width-wise to fit a laser I was using. Then I took them to the laser, created a cut line in the software, slid the sheet into the laser (it had a drop down panel like the GF pass-thru), lined it up, cut a sheet lengthwise and then did it again and again…when i was done I thought about how long it took to do that vs resetting the fence on the table saw and making a couple of passes for the stack. 
Using the laser to score either side of the kerf should be able to prevent tear out of plywood. But that certainly would double the work load when a box cutter and straight edge can prescore the wood. I’ll have to try to cut Tyvek with my Cameo, know that you mention an exacto knife.
I cut a 3x4 felt square using the laser this weekend. Talk about a silly time sink
Funny, I was just looking at a roll of Tyvex in the barn, and thought “Would it Lase?”
Tyvek is awesome to use!! Cuts like butter but won’t rip no matter how hard you pull on it. Also, when you apply heat to a folded edge, it makes that crease really solid- a mini hair straightener turned out to be the perfect tool 
I used tyvek to make a full-scale prototype origami dress- wasn’t the most comfortable but it kept you nice and warm 
Can we see a picture of this? Sounds awesome!
