Jon's Imaginarium – Laser-Cut Enclosures The Easy Way

From Hack-A-Day, an easy way to design laser-cut enclosures of many shapes and styles.


Boxes.py will generate the needed files for many styles of boxes, including those with flexible panels. Just enter the needed parameters and you'll get the files for a laser cutter. One of the interesting options are enclosures for 19" racks. An acrylic alternative to a commercial enclosure is nice for prototyping and checking dimensions before committing to machining.

If you don't have a laser-cutter, no problem. Many hacker spaces will cut laser projects for you, and commercial services are getting common.

I'm hoping to get the school's (my) laser cutter fixed shortly so this site could come in very useful.

Thanks,

Mike.

Pommie said:

I'm hoping to get the school's (my) laser cutter fixed shortly so this site could come in very useful.

Click to expand...

Presumably you're aware of the limitations on materials you can cut?.

I went to see a guy with one the other year (he also had some nice large CNC milling machines), and I was disappointed to find that many plastics can't be cut In particular, and what we were interested in, was ABS - which burns rather than cuts, and the fumes ruin the optics.

Funnily enough, he used to have a unit (doing software) on the same industrial park we're on, but now works from his old farmhouse up a track in the fields.

The school one is 50W and will cut 3mm acrylic and 6mm wood. It installs as a printer so can be used with any software. Send it vector graphics, it cuts, bitmaps get etched (lower power raster movement). It got ruined (optics fogged) one day when a supply teacher was convinced that the kids knew how to use it, they used it without exstractor or compressor running and coated all the mirrors with tar.

Mike.

One point to keep in mind – if you're paying someone for laser time, all the cuts required by a "living hinge" could get expensive.