With our custom laser cutting service, you can create custom, two-dimensional plastic parts suitable for a variety of projects. We can laser cut almost anything you can draw, including sharp angles, smooth curves, small screw holes, and complex lace designs, and we can also laser engrave text, logos, and photos onto your parts. You may also send us your own material. Please see our for a complete list of materials we can cut. We cannot cut glass, polycarbonate Lexan , carbon fiber, thicker metals, or any material containing chlorine, including PVC and vinyl. Please see for a comprehensive list. If you need a metallic look, we do stock two-tone acrylic-based sheets with a thin, faux-metal top layer, and you could also consider cutting up to 0. Hardware stores usually carry thick, black glue for gluing ABS parts. You must take care when drilling holes in acrylic, which is brittle and tends to crack it is better to have us laser-cut small screw holes. ABS, PETG, styrene, and wood are easier to machine by hand. Laser engraving A pentomino piece, showing engraved solution. We can do two types of laser engraving also called laser etching : vector engraving and raster engraving. Engraving depths can range from barely scratching the surface to almost going through the material; we cannot control the depths very precisely, but we will try our best to achieve what you need. In general, laser engraving is suitable for marking material not for making deep grooves for mechanical purposes. Vector engraving is limited to line art. The example uses vector engraving to show the puzzle solutions on the pieces. Raster engraving is more flexible; you can engrave thin lines as well as recessed areas. The laser blasts away material one pixel at a time, similar to the printing process used by inkjet printers. We usually raster engrave at 400 dpi, but we can use lower resolutions and can also use 600 dpi and 1200 dpi settings. Issues to consider The kerf of our laser beams varies from roughly 0. The tapering causes one side of a laser-cut part the side facing up during laser cutting to be slightly smaller than the other side. Please see our file preparation instructions to learn how to adjust for the kerf. Also, the holes will be conical due to the slight taper of the laser cut as described above. If you need the holes to be more circular and cylindrical, we suggest that you have us laser-cut small starter holes, which you clean up with a drill. If you are designing interlocking parts with slots and tabs and you are trying to create a tight fit, keep in mind that you can only control the dimension being cut by the machine not the material thickness. You will have to decide whether to design the part so that the dimensions you control are slightly too big or too small so that to achieve a tight fit, you might have to either sand some parts, or use glue or add some shims. The degree of charring depends on the material. The back side might show more charring or some scorching the laser bounces off of the metal grill on which the material sits and hits the back of the material, leaving scorch marks. You can mask the material to decrease the charring and scorching on the material surface, but the edges will still be charred. Most plastics that we cut, including acrylic, PETG, and ABS, do not char. This is true especially if the width of a piece is the same or less than the material thickness. The material at the end of the tip will become paper-thin and brittle and will probably break off in an unpredictable spot. We would suggest that you round off any acute, sharp corners where the two converging lines are no less than 0. When the laser cuts through the material, it hits the metal grill and bounces back and hits the bottom of the material, causing a small dent or mark. The backs of the parts will usually have small dents along the cut edges of the part wherever the laser, metal grid, and material meet. Other plastics, such as ABS and styrene, do not have any protective masking. The masking helps to decrease denting on the back side described above, and protects the material surface from any flames or residues that are created during cutting. If you would like us to mask your material, please request this in the special instructions section of our quote request form. To order custom laser cut parts, see information in about file setup or proceed to the.