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Need Help! Laser-Cutting/ Engraving Terrain?

Knox

Knox

Active member
Hey everyone,
My local library has a laser cutter and engraver that's free to use. I'm thinking about getting some wood and/or insulation foam and laser cutting heroscape terrain/ engraving the hexagon pattern on them (e.g., laser cutting it into the shape of a 24-hex piece, then laser engraving that shape with a hexagonal pattern).

It doesn't need to be stackable per-se, this would just be for top level/base level terrain.

Anybody have advice on how they'd go about this?

I have no experience making custom terrain, but the free Maker Space is too good not to use.
 
Hey,

Just noticed this thread.
I already practiced a lot laser cutting and engraving (+3D printing but that's not our subject here) for robotics so here are a few things I can recommend :

General thoughts :
- Laser cutting is not really consistent to make heroscape terrain, as you can create only in 2 dimensions (x, y) and the third one (z) can be changed only with engraving (long process with a laser) and is dependent on the basic thickness of your material.

- All material does not fit for laser cutting. A lot of plastics produces toxic gas and thus are forbidden for such use. Others just burns while cutting.... this has to be checked beforehand.

To do heroscape tiles :
You have to find the correct material. From what I said previously, the best one would be of the same thickness of a HS tile..!
It is possible to engrave the whole top of the hex to get something really similar to official tiles. To do this, we need a svg file of the top view of the tiles, that can be found with those files. But here the export is not trivial without a specialized software.

Then you just need to get the external tile shape profile for the laser cut. This one is quite easy and can be obtained from the 3D file with free tools like tinkedcad (Export => svg).

Here is a result for instance, for a single hex, with a basic tile top i.e. no realistic engraving (just a .png preview, the file should be in .svg for laser cut/engrave) :

---
As a last note, it would be nice to use a CNC to remove the all external edge of the tiles (red zone engraved bellow) to fasten the engraving process but also the interior of the tiles, to get more practical tiles. This should not be hard to do.
Otherwise, engraving is always made before -and in the same process as- laser-cutting. That's the only way to guarantee correct alignment between cutting and the engraving.
 
What do you think about laser-engraving blank dice?


DanieLoche said:
Hey,

Just noticed this thread.
I already practiced a lot laser cutting and engraving (+3D printing but that's not our subject here) for robotics so here are a few things I can recommend :

General thoughts :
- Laser cutting is not really consistent to make heroscape terrain, as you can create only in 2 dimensions (x, y) and the third one (z) can be changed only with engraving (long process with a laser) and is dependent on the basic thickness of your material.

- All material does not fit for laser cutting. A lot of plastics produces toxic gas and thus are forbidden for such use. Others just burns while cutting.... this has to be checked beforehand.

To do heroscape tiles :
You have to find the correct material. From what I said previously, the best one would be of the same thickness of a HS tile..!
It is possible to engrave the whole top of the hex to get something really similar to official tiles. To do this, we need a svg file of the top view of the tiles, that can be found with those files. But here the export is not trivial without a specialized software.

Then you just need to get the external tile shape profile for the laser cut. This one is quite easy and can be obtained from the 3D file with free tools like tinkedcad (Export => svg).

Here is a result for instance, for a single hex, with a basic tile top i.e. no realistic engraving (just a .png preview, the file should be in .svg for laser cut/engrave) :

---
As a last note, it would be nice to use a CNC to remove the all external edge of the tiles (red zone engraved bellow) to fasten the engraving process but also the interior of the tiles, to get more practical tiles. This should not be hard to do.
Otherwise, engraving is always made before -and in the same process as- laser-cutting. That's the only way to guarantee correct alignment between cutting and the engraving.
Click to expand...
 
You'll have to check that the dice material can be engraved using a laser (should be ok for main materials I can find : wood or acrylic dice).

The only difficulty I see is to place correctly the die on your laser cutter surface to be 100% sure you center correctly the engraving.
Other than that, would be a really nice solution !

You can find a nice tuto here. You'll notice the main point of the tuto is about getting the dice on the correct location for engraving.
 
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