Lego?

[Steve Crawford]

Does anyone know what Lego bricks are made from? I was wanting to cut some for a Logo, but was concerned they might be PVC. I have a Trotec Atmos Duo extractor rigged up to my Speedy 300. Anyone else cut them before? Am I ok cutting them? :confused:

[Scott Shepherd]

I think they are ABS. If so, you should be okay.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Yup they are ABS, I cut quite a few of them for different companies.

cheers

Dave

[Keith Upton]

Lego is a PVC free company due to child safety concerns. I also found this that might help you...


Most parts are indeed ABS as it's a very sturdy plastic, but sometimes it's not suitable, or downright impossible to use. I've seen a presentation on quality issues given by a LEGO employee in LEGOworld a few years back, and as far as I remember there were between 10 and 20 sorts of plastic in use. The ones I remember are:


ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) for most regular bricks
PC (polycarbonate) for transparent bricks, as ABS can't be made transparent. Polycarbonate parts on the other hand have too much friction when in contact with other polycarbonate parts, making them extremely hard to disassemble. LEGO designers are forbidden (http://bricks.stackexchange.com/q/155) to have some PC parts put together in models.
Rubber for tires and rubbery things - that's kinda obvious
A less sturdy plastic (can't remember the name) for parts which are more subject to being bent, for example studless technic beams.

And the list goes on. I know the presentation hadn't been made public, but some people took pictures, so if I ever find it back I'll add a link.

[Clark Pace]

I have cut ABS until I read that laser cut ABS off gases Cyanide fumes!!! Taken from

http://wiki.sshchicago.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter



Lego is a PVC free company due to child safety concerns. I also found this that might help you...

[Dave Sheldrake]

I have cut ABS until I read that laser cut ABS off gases Cyanide fumes!!! Taken from

http://wiki.sshchicago.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter

Bananas contain Potassium 40 and are radioactive too, Hydrogen Cyanide in the amounts emitted by cutting Lego bricks is present in *trace* only amounts. You will be exposed to roughly 40 times as much by eating a single apple pip. The smoke / fumes aren't nice but then again neither is Ammonia given off by melamine or Formaldehyde given off by plywood.

Treated with care it is very unlikely to cause any more problems than most other Laserable materials.

cheers

Dave

[David Somers]

The take away being, of course, that you should eat Lego bricks rather than Apple Pips.

<grin>

Dave
TGIF!!!!!!

[Mike Troncalli]

The take away being, of course, that you should eat Lego bricks rather than Apple Pips.

<grin>

Dave
TGIF!!!!!!

You have obviously never had grilled Lego with Moon Pie sauce..

:D

[Ian Johnson]

Has anyone tried cutting a lego build plate? I've had a family request to make a lake by cutting out a green plate and filling the hole with a blue one.

[Gary Hair]

Bananas contain Potassium 40 and are radioactive too, Hydrogen Cyanide in the amounts emitted by cutting Lego bricks is present in *trace* only amounts. You will be exposed to roughly 40 times as much by eating a single apple pip. The smoke / fumes aren't nice but then again neither is Ammonia given off by melamine or Formaldehyde given off by plywood.

Treated with care it is very unlikely to cause any more problems than most other Laserable materials.

cheers

Dave

And don't even get me started on dihydrogen oxide, it's nasty stuff!

[Guy Hilliard]

Gary

Dihydrogen Monoxide

Isn't that the stuff that kills more people than just about any other substance known to man?
And that's just the recreational users!

Guy

[Dave Sheldrake]

Has anyone tried cutting a lego build plate? I've had a family request to make a lake by cutting out a green plate and filling the hole with a blue one.

yup works well my friend, lots of air assist and fair speed works well. I cut a lot of the big grey bases for the local kids :)

cheers

Dave

[Gary Hair]

Gary

Dihydrogen Monoxide

Isn't that the stuff that kills more people than just about any other substance known to man?
And that's just the recreational users!

Guy

Yep, absolutely right! Have you ever seen the msds on that stuff? I can't believe anyone would ever come in contact with it if they knew how dangerous it really is...

[Jerome Stanek]

I have it on good authority that anyone who comes in contact will die.

[Steve Crawford]

Thanks for your replies all... :)

[Dave Sheldrake]

Yep, absolutely right! Have you ever seen the msds on that stuff? I can't believe anyone would ever come in contact with it if they knew how dangerous it really is...

Joking aside it never ceases to amaze me how many people fall for that one even these days ;)

cheers

Dave

[Dan Wilhelm]

Gary

Dihydrogen Monoxide

Isn't that the stuff that kills more people than just about any other substance known to man?
And that's just the recreational users!

Guy

Funny story about that. My city was having a problem with the local homeless population bathing in the local fountains. One clever city worker came up with a solution. They put signs up near all of the fountains that read "WARNING: HIGH HYDROGEN CONTENT!" It worked like a charm...until the local human rights wonks caught wind of it. They made the city take the signs down because they were insulting the intelligence of the homeless people.