I am designing a demonstration scaled model for a special mechanism.
It has to be 1/4 scale and therefore too small to hold by hand and operate a simple lever.
It is about 4 inches square, 1 inch high, but there are moving parts that make that size impossible to hold by hand.
So I would like to make an acrylic base about 4 X 10 inches and print the PLA model directly on the acrylic. It could be CNC or LASER cut, but which will be best?
I could glue it but that presents some alignment problems and there is no suitable way to screw the model to the base.
That would save me the time and PLA to print a base that size, while being transparent so that the model stands out on top of it.
So, what is best to shape a flat piece of acrylic, CNC or LASER?
What problems would I face printing directly on the acrylic base?
Anything else I should know??
jgb
ps. I don’t have an A350 yet, so I can’t experiment. But I need to know so the design work I do now will work later.
If I understand you correctly, you want to cut a shape from clear acrylic. Depending on who you ask, neither blue nor IR laser reliably cut clear acrylic, but some people say at least the IR can do it. If you want to be on the safe side: Assume that CNC milling is the right approach. But be aware that you need special milling bits for acrylic and/or need to be carefull regarding cutting speeds - Acrylic seems to melt easily and then form nasty blobs that make milling difficult, so you need to ensure that you stay below this melting point. All this said without having any experience with acrylic on my own, but there’s plenty of advice on the internet.
The cutting of the acrylic is secondary, but your concerns are noted, with thanks.
My question is specifically the adhesion of the PLA printed object printed directly on the acrylic base, rather than on the heated print bed plate.
If the printed object will not adhere to the acrylic base during printing, then I will have to glue it, but that in itself presents a problem due to the shape of the interface. Hence my query.
Yes, testing required. But I don’t have a printer yet, so that is a problem for me.
I was hoping somebody may have tried this before, or is willing to experiment now.
I know I am well ahead of needing to actually print something, but I am in the middle of the design of the device and the answers to my query will factor into any further refinement.