Laser-cutting old vinyl LPs

3D Printing & Imaging Energy & Sustainability Furniture & Lighting
Laser-cutting old vinyl LPs
si_stand1.png

Personally, these laser-cut plastic end tables by Israel’s Studio Groovy (Fair warning: I couldn’t actually find them on their Flash-y website) are not to my taste, but I really like the fact that that they put some old vinyl records in their laser cutter and managed to make something fairly cool out of them. Bonus: The table on the left uses the cut-out from the table on the right as decoration, so there’s very little waste. [via Recyclart]

Update: I might do better in life, in general, if I would, you know, use my eyes more. As a commenter pointed out, close inspection of the photograph indicates that the detail on the left-hand table is not, in fact, exactly the cut-out from the table on the left. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t do it that way, at least… [Thanks, Click!]

More:
Love is in the Air (cut vinyl record silhouettes)

12 thoughts on “Laser-cutting old vinyl LPs

  1. hbetts says:

    On their website under Design in the “Wood” section — go figure.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      Thanks for letting us know! Cheers! -Sean

  2. Click says:

    Thanks for the post, looks cool. One note – The table on the left, when examined more closely, does not appear to use the cut-out from the table on the right. It merely discards the outer rim, and other than that there appears to be no appreciable difference between the pieces. We’ve been duped!

    That aside, It appears you could make one from the negative of another, though it could be a bit more challenging since it would be made of many tiny pieces rather than the original design’s continuous piece.

  3. zimage.myopenid.com says:

    The left table simply lacks the black border that the right one has. You’ll notice that both tables have the celtic braid as white-space.

  4. jason1729 says:

    Don’t laser cut vinyl. Unless you want to release a gas that’s posionous to you and destructive to the electronic parts of your laser cutter.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      But I’m curious: Is that chlorine gas you’re talking about? Or something else? And where did you hear/read that? Thanks!

  5. potentato says:

    I thought cutting vinyl with lasers was bad? TechShop told me it created toxic fumes and/or damaged the cutter. Is there a trick here, or is there a certain kind of laser cutter used?

    1. bdring says:

      I saw something similar a while ago and tried it on my laser.

      Bad idea.

      I had a lot of brownish colored gas that instantly rusted any uncoated metal or even anything with a scratch. That is with the exhaust blower running.

      1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

        “Brownish” strongly implies that it’s chlorine gas, which is, yes, bad for exposed metals and bad for you. Good info, thanks.

  6. John Park says:

    Yes, the laser cutter manuals all say to avoid cutting anything that releases chlorine gas, which includes vinyl and PVC.

  7. cspartikus says:

    I learned here… when everybody got their hands on the laser cutter for the first time and started to laser their moleskins that laser+vinyl=bad…. didnt I?

  8. Daniel Rezac says:

    I keep reading that cutting vinyl on a laser cutter might be a bad idea. Thoughts on that?

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK