Legos

[Brian Terry]

Has anybody tried to laser legos? Are they safe to laser?

[Matt Turner (physics)]

Legos are made from ABS, which has been vetted as safe by previous discussions.

[Tim Bateson]

I tested a bunch for a reseller and finally turned the job down. I couldn't find that happy medium between an engraving that you could hardly see and melting through it. I've seen it done, so I know it's possible, so maybe I just didn't have enough patience. You'll have to show us your results.

[Dan Hintz]

Tim,

A YAG/fiber laser marks ABS quite well... it it possible what you saw was marked that way?

[Tim Bateson]

Anything is possible, I just know my CO2 ruined a lot of Legos. I was very surprised to learn of the Lego aftermarket. Big business for some of these folks. There's a whole sector of people buying/selling rare and custom pieces.

[Dan Hintz]

Maybe I should print out a few of the more rare pieces on my 3D printer and sell for a bit of profit

[Khalid Nazim]

Hi Dan,

Speaking of your 3D printer, which one did you get eventually? Can you post some pictures?

Regards
Khalid

[Dan Hintz]

Khalid,

I wanted something dirt cheap but useable for my purposes, so I went with the Solidoodle setup... it required a bit of tweaking, kind of like a Chinese laser versus a domestic one, but it seems to do the job well enough for my purposes at the moment. With the low cost, I didn't have to worry about lugging it around... right now it's at work where the other guys in the office can come and play with it whenever they want. They work up their design, bring their laptop over, plug in, and press "go". It's no speed demon for the high-res (0.1mm) prints that contain a lot of circles (the firmware does not currently support the G-code for true circles, so it splits it up into tiny straight segments), something I have a particular need for, but it works, and I don't really have to babysit it.

[Khalid Nazim]

Thanks Dan. I am really interesting in getting a 3D printer and am in the exploration mode currently.

[Brian Terry]

Thanks for the info. I'll try it but I am not going to waste a bunch of time on it. Thanks again

[Steven Cox]

Be careful guys, there is LEGO and the chinese knock off's of Lego. The real macoy Lego is ABS but some of the knock off's are PVC.

[Bill Cunningham]

I did several hundred for a lego convention of sorts in Toronto a year or so ago.. It did take quite a few to hit the sweet spot. Once I found it, I was doing them in lots of ten snapped together. Black worked best, and after they were done, they colour filled them with white and yellow I think.. The trick was to get the engraving deep enough, without leaving a 'lip' around the edge. I think it took two passes to do the trick, and the result after colour filling seems to look good.. I probably have some pictures somewhere.. I will have a look on Monday when I get back to the shop..