Lasering cloth.

[Steve Baker]

In the last few days of our second model village kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1093338811/east-asian-village-for-28mm-gamers

(Yep - everything there is lasersaur'ed!)

I'm making a traditional japanese fishing village - a prominent feature of
which are the large circular fishing nets hung out to dry.

We need to cut these nets into complicated shapes - and the laser is great
at cutting cloth...but the problem is that the cloth keeps getting caught
up in the head.

We started off just smoothing the cloth out on top of a sheet of plywood -
and with 4000mm/min and 50% power, the laser zips through cotton like it
wasn't there. However, it's very hard to keep the cloth dead flat and as
the laser cuts it, it tends to curl a bit or something - the laser head
will catch on it and before you know it, you have 8 square feet of fabric
wrapped around the cutting head!

We tried stretching the cloth taut by taping the edges down - but as soon
as there is any tension in the cloth, it moves when you cut it - and
pretty soon the results are the same.

I suppose that reconfiguring the head so that the nozzle is much higher up
above the material and the focal length stays the same would be an
approach - but it's a pain to have to rebuild all of that stuff between
cutting plywood and cloth...so I'd like to avoid doing that if I can.

Does anyone have any good techniques for doing this?

(Incidentally: Don't try cutting polyester...it melts and gets very ikky
no matter how little power you use! Nylon, silk and cotton seem to work
OK though).

-- Steve

[douglas repetto]

I've used spray mount in situations like this. It'll temporarily adhere
the cloth to a backing board while you cut it.

douglas

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[Steve Baker]

It doesn't leave any residue on the cloth when you remove it?

-- Steve

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-- Steve

[Erik Moon]

Vinyl transfer tape works great…

It is meant for transferring blade-cut vinyl decals from a vinyl cutter. It's like contact paper or masking tape -- but it comes in very wide rolls.

You could put the netting down on a sacrificial surface like cardboard or wood and tape it down with the transfer tape. Then cut through the tape and the netting / fabric.


-Erik

[douglas repetto]

Nope. You spray it on and let it set a bit. Then you have a nice tacky,
but dry, surface to lay your fabric on. It's made specifically for this
sort of thing.

best,
douglas

[Tim Courtland]

Hi,

I would second the spray contact adhesive. Used on only the board surface and left to tack I would be surprised if it left any residue.

Back to the shadows....

Tim

[Neil Gillies]

I'll third the spray mount - specifically the 3M77 _repositionable_ product - use it a lot on an MDF board for ripstop nylon and thin japanese tissue. The repositionable stuff is akin to postit note adhesive - regular spraymount can be more agressive sometimes.
Cheers
Neil

Sent from my iPad

[Steve Baker]

Sounds like this is the answer I need...I hadn't thought of using an
adhesive - but it's clearly the right answer.

Many thanks everyone!

-- Steve