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Doug McIntyre
11-29-2008, 9:47 AM
My daughter-in-law in Ontario who is a designer in the architectural industry gave me a couple of samples of 3-form sheet on my recent visit. It's a resin material on 3 layers with designs/patterns in the middle layer. There are a huge number of designs and thicknesses making it the 'dream' material for the laser if it can be cut easily and comes in at a reasonable price.

I've tried the cutting part and it was reasonably successful with very little meltback on the settings I used. Somehow I think the price may well be another matter! I'm in the UK with no sign of a supplier for only hobby type use and I'll be away from my laser for a few weeks soon.

Anyone in the U.S. want to follow this up? Samples are available from the company - it's 3-form.com

Doug Griffith
11-29-2008, 10:33 AM
I have done jobs for 3-Form involving vacuum and pressure forming. Since I had quite a bit of scrap after trimming, I experimented cutting it with my laser. Here is what I came up with:

1) It is beautiful stuff.
2) it is PETG which doesn't laser well.
3) it doesn't come in thin gauge. 1/4 is as thin as it gets.
4) it is cast and varies just like acrylic if not more.
5) not all embedded materials can be cut with a laser.
6) it may be possible to get a decent cut through the PETG but the inner material will take a different setting. It's hard to get a happy medium.
7) some of the sheets that look like they can be cut because there arent any embedded materials are really layers of different plastics. Again, requiring different settings.
8) it is very expensive.

There are a few alternatives:
Lumicor, Knoll Imago, Veritas among others. Lumicor also produces the sheet in acrylic.

Cheers,
Doug

Larry Bratton
11-29-2008, 10:59 AM
PETG...it'll melt under the heat from the laser. Nice stuff though but expensive. 3-form markets their product primarily to architects and designers doing high end work.

Doug McIntyre
11-29-2008, 3:12 PM
As Doug Griffith has already tested 3-form it doesn't sound as if it's worth following up purely on price alone. One thing though, the samples I have are only 1/16th". Precisely why it interested me in the first place.

Doug Griffith
11-29-2008, 3:20 PM
That must be their colored PETG sheet. I've never seen sheet from them with embedded materials anything thinner than 1/4. I've got some awesome iridescent samples from them I tried forever cut cleanly. Lumicor's acrylic line seems more promising.

Cheers,
Doug