Ponoko Engraving Test Photos

Another play order arrived from Ponoko, this time its a *secret*.

To get the best value out of the postage though, I tagged along several test pieces of the materials I was interested in :-

  1. Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
  2. PETG Clear 0.5 mm
  3. Felt Blue 3.0 mm
  4. Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
  5. Styrene White 1.0 mm
  6. Bamboo Ply 3.0 mm

Summary : PETG & Cardboard look AWESOME.  Wonder why people don’t use the 6mm double layer cardboard more on Ponoko…

Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm

Read(view) on for more photos.

Panels

Felt Blue 3.0 mm
Felt Blue 3.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
PETG Clear 0.5 mm
PETG Clear 0.5 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm

Panels 2 (Angled because of the glare from my light on the plastics)

PETG Clear 0.5 mm
PETG Clear 0.5 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm

Radiation warning comparison

Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Acrylic Clear TRANSPARENT 2.0 mm
Felt Blue 3.0 mm
Felt Blue 3.0 mm
PETG Clear 0.5 mm
PETG Clear 0.5 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm
Styrene White 1.0 mm

Miscellaneous close-ups

Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm
Corrugated Card Double Layer 6.0 mm

Bullet point thoughts

  • The cardboard cuts and “engraves” (cuts throught a single layer really) beautifully!!!
  • Both vector and raster engraving on the PETG look quite nice too, and would make wonderful business cards.
  • The blue felt cut and engraved nicely, but smelt like $@#$%!#$@#.
  • The 2mm acrylic cuts very nicely and very strong for what evil purpose I have in mind for it 🙂 Buahahahaha.  It engraves quite nicely too but there’s a bit of white powdery residue that could be cleaned off.
  • The styrene melts too easily.  Cutting and engraving melts the styrene too easily and small detail is easily lost.  You also can’t really see any engraving on it anyway… what a waste.

PS : Erm no bamboo photos because I haven’t unpacked the bamboo pieces…

5 thoughts on “Ponoko Engraving Test Photos”

  1. Are you doing the cutting yourself? Eg via laser?
    Thinking of ordering myself a laser cutter to play – usb ones in China aren’t too expensive +-2500rmb

    Or ordering cut off Ponoko.
    I quite like the cardboard ones, they do look cool.
    (Got here via pp3dp)

  2. Hey guys, I’m quite interested in affordable usb laser. Ponoko prices (in europe) are a ripoff. At least if you’re making products that are larger than earrings. Can you share a link to a source for these usb lasers? Have you got one yet? What is your experience?

  3. These look pretty good!

    What level raster engraving (Medium or Heavy?) did you use on the Clear Acrylic?

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