I’ve been designing parts for the Atomic Duck to be manufacture by laser cutting, so I looked for a makerspace or friendly laser cutter in Liverpool. DoESLiverpool has a workshop with a laser cutter and a makerbot and co-working space, and I’ve been having great fun it their Makernights (two evenings and one Saturday a month).

I was asked to help with a wall mount for a piece of artwork from the Re-view Textile group that is to be displayed in the Liverpool Bienial. When the original wooden support wasn’t working as well as expected, I got to put my knowledge of interlocking laser-cut parts from Atomic Duck to work and created a clear perspex bracket pair to mount the piece.

This part shows some of the advantages of laser cutting: rapid production and an intricate design that would be unfeasable to cut by hand. I was able to go from initial design to final cut part in less than 8 hours, and the cutting time for the each pair of brackets was only around 8 minutes. In all I cut 3 copies, one in wood as an initial check for clearances, one white acrylic bracket to check some small adjustments and the final clear acrylic set.

You might notice that some of the hooks that mount the bracket to the back plate are broken where they either hadn’t been cut through fully, or were broken when I tested it for strength. While the final pair of brackets were glued together with a clear epoxy, the hooks are designed for a 1kg static load without any adhesive. Note however if you want to use this design that the performance will be less if the acrylic is loaded with any speed (as acrylic performs badly under shock loading) or if the design is cut in plywood (the wood fibres will split easily along the grain as the shear area between the laminations is small in that area).

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Download the cutting diagram as SVG