Was going to run by home Depot and pick up some acrylic for a couple of projects. Will be my first time working with acrylic on the laser. Was guessing 1/8" would work and found online they had 48"x96" sheets in store. There are two brands, Optix and Plexiglass but a $30 price difference. Is there any reason not to go with the cheaper Optix sheet?
If memory serves the Optix stuff is more brittle thus cracks and shatters easier.
For your first time, make a test file with some small pieces and practice cutting some scrap acrylic. There should be some irregularly shaped scraps and pieces in the rack next to the Lasersaur.
I have a few pieces I scavenged from the scrap pile to play with but I don’t know what brands/type they are to purchase them later if I get results I like.
BUT I took @talkers ornament class right before Christmas and he had brought in some wood and some mirrored acrylic so I used that instead. I made snowflakes on the Thunder and they looked really cool with the mirrored acrylic. The wood looked just ok, until I took it in the woodshop and sanded off the smoke that was on the surface and hit it with linseed oil - WAY COOL! Took them with me to show off Christmas eve and my mother took them away from me and wants a bunch more to hang from the garland on her mantle for next year, lol! She was running around making everybody smell the wood one…it was too funny. It was a great class as I had never used the Thunder, just the Zing. It was hands-on lab after the initial instruction on setting up the files and a refresher on the Thunder and John was there to field questions and help out when needed. So it was great - love classes like that…SUPERVISED playtime with an educational bent!
@frank_lima Thanks for that info…I was going to use them for pattern templates so brittle would be a bad, bad thing. Must be why it’s cheaper. @talkers suggested buying from Allied, so I’ll check out what they have and, of course, pick up some mirrored stuff for my mom’s snowflakes, lol!
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Are they extruded or cast? That could be a difference.
They say “fully quenched”…but don’t mention cast or extruded…quenching hardens, right, but could that be part of either process of manufacture? Most of the posts I’ve looked at on Leatherworker all mention that these chisels are comparable if not identical to the other Japanese made chisels made by Seiwa, Craft Sha and Kyoshin Elle…LC is just their house brand. They all have the checkered body, mirror finish and size stamped into the handle. A couple of guys even said that Seiwa makes LC’s chisels, but I can’t verify that or that Seiwa makes them to the same standard of quality. While there are many folks who swear by Osbourne, Dixon, Barry King, Vergez Blanchard, Gomph and other US or European tool manufacturers, I have a few tools from all of these manufacturers save Blanchard as I’m simply not paying $200-300 for a pricking iron, lol. I’ve been pleased with the few Japanese chisels and punches I’ve bought. Tandy makes some of their stuff in China which in terms of quality is not always the best so I imagine steel quality is why they don’t carry one bigger than 4mm.
Other than seeing suggestions against buying any of the kits from leathercrafttools.com if you don’t read Japanese because the “English” instructions are almost indecipherable, no one has said anything about tines bending or punches splitting or other issues with hand tools from this vendor failing. I’ve just never had the occasion to use this vendor.