While searching the internet for a company to custom cut acrylic pieces for a robot arm
I ran across this company. http://www.pololu.com/laser_cutting.html
There prices seam to be really reasonable. Has anyone had any experience with them?
Does anyone now of any other companies that will laser cut acrylic for a resonable price?

The arm is part of a senior design project for my last year in college. The attached picture
is of the robots current form. The arm will have a gripper on it. I am looking to get the
gripper design and the arm laser cut from acrylic or some similer material.

Thanks to all who reply.

Attached Images

puma.jpg (44.5 KB, 256 views)

 

Kingpin -- Almost any up-to-date trophy/award shop, i.e. one who is equipped with a laser engraver, can do what you want done. The site that you linked is a well-known job shop in Vegas, and they use Epilog lasers there. The other popular machines used in most shops come from Universal Laser Systems. Both of these manufacturers provide high-quality CO2 lasers to the awards industry as well as to many other industiries. I service (and on occasion sell) both lines of machines through arrangements with local distributors in my area, so I am very familiar with both lines.

Of the two, the ULS machines are slightly more capable when it comes to vector cutting, although the current production Epilogs now certainly do a more than adequate job as well.

In your immediate area, ARA shows Award Masters Inc. to be a local shop. While I am not directly familiar with them, it's a safe bet that they have laser equipment there. If not, the ARA Locate a Dealer feature should help you find others nearby.

It is a good idea to find a local awards shop rather than a specialized laser job shop because of price and turnaround considerations. Using a local shop gives you the ability to interact directly with the shop instead of having to work things via mail-order or the web.

As to drawing types, the vast majority of shops out there work with CorelDraw!, and can thus use a CorelDraw! .CDR file or one of the various vector-format files that can be imported into CorelDraw!. While it is possible to run these machines from Autocad, many shops will simply not have that application available.

If you find a local shop to work with and need help in getting a drawing ready for cutting, I'd be happy to help you with that. If you want a direct referral to an engraving shop. I'd be happy to recommend one here in the Northeast, though as I already stated, you'd likely be best served by a local shop. Any shop listed in ARA should be a reputable and competitive shop.

Let me know if you need more info...

 

Their OK! I bought from them before, and will again.

Steveo

 

laser cutters, water jet cutters, cnc machines, even standard
engravers using spindle.....