Maximising Materials

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Due to reasons I cut the first of four items from a sheet of 3mm laser ply (instead of 2.7mm nominal). When I was looking through my materials I couldn't find a second sheet so I was left with the task of squeezing the rest of my cuts out of a sheet with holes in. In order to maximise the material I ended up drawing the sheet with approximations of the holes in it and then laying out the new cuts around those. Sure it would be simpler if I had a webcam in the lid to take a shot of the new sheet but this at least demonstrates it can be done the manual way. I've now got all the parts I need to assemble the other three items, all cut from the same material.


You'll notice that some of the sections are coloured. This is my trick for making coloured items quickly. Paint the sheet the desired colour and then cut the items out of it. Cutting the sheet out while leaving the frame in place allows me to quickly realign the sheets when they go back into the laser.


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