I’m planning on 3D printing some custom wall mounts for electrical equipment that needs to fit into spaces that are too small or irregular for off the shelf enclosures, and I will probably need some kind of gasket in order to weather proof them.
I could probably cut them by hand, but in order to get a neater fit I’m considering laser cutting them. Does anyone have any experience in cutting gasket that could save me some time and hassle.
I’ve never tried this before so I’m completely open to advice on what to do.
I have a 10W Ortur LM3, completely vanilla with no modifications, and I’m going to be enclosing mostly 10-12V 5.5mm electrical jacks and Cat6 cable connections, but maybe also household electrical outlet plugs for things like CCTV camera and Christmas lights.
I’m completely open about what kind of material to use and will buy them in whatever thickness is recommended here.
I could technically 3D print them rather than cut them with TPU, but I don’t have any TPU and don’t want to buy a whole roll for a few prints, and would be interested in trying to laser cut them first just to see how it goes.
I have made small rubber gaskets out of a strip cut from a bicycle inner tube, I simply lasered it in my ‘40w’ diode machine. Reasonably quick to cut but the edges were cacky (charred), however nothing that didn’t easily sandpaper off…
My machine has air-assist and a Full Enclosure with external ventilation. Rubber, plastic and co. give off fumes that can cause serious neurological damage…
Paper gaskets should cut really easily… still beware of fumes since ‘paper’ includes all sorts of additives these days.
My usual tactic for one-offs is to print a template on paper, temporarily paste it to the gasket material, and then use scissors to cut it out. But, I did also just get a LM3 so I’ll be interested to see how that works out.
For the printed cases, do they need to be watertight? I ask because most default print profiles create shapes that leak water between the layers. In the past I’ve covered prints with Bondo and then painted them to seal out water but I really don’t care for the chemical fumes that come off of Bondo, especially since I work at home.
This is one of those cases where I have a tool and am looking to see if I can use it to do something better with it than I’m already doing. So, seeing if it’s better to laser cut than hand cut.
1 mm silicone sheets cuts very nicely with a CO2 cutter (and makes a most pleasing noise). It produces some “dust” which you should probably not inhale, but is very easy to remove by washing the finished gasket.
