Laser Cutting Query

Hi,

I’m interested in making a mold for jewelry. I need approximately several different round sizes (.6", .8", 1.1", 1.4" 2.5" diameter), . The mold can be made from plastic or acrylic. I would like to recreate a picture. I’ve never had my own molds made. Is this the best route and is this possible?

Thank you
Savor

Hello,

We do not know specifically about using laser-cut acrylic as molds. We do know of one customer who used 1/16" laser-cut acrylic pieces as positives to cast molds for making jewelry, but he did not use the plastic directly as the mold.

We need to know more details about your design to help judge whether laser-cut parts might work for you. What thickness material are you looking to cut from? Do you just need circles, or is there more detail inside the circle sizes you mention? We do laser cut acrylic, so we might be able to help.

Laser cutting is a great way to make detailed pieces: we can cut all the way through the material, we can can etch line art into material (just like cutting, but at a lower power so we do not cut all the way through), and we can also laser engrave designs (the laser can recess areas of plastic; you can think of it as “coloring in” certain areas of the plastic with the laser, which will melt away some of the material and leave a recession). Things to note for molds:

  • The edges of laser-cut plastic will have striations and possibly a bump or divot where the laser starts and stops cutting, and the engraved plastic has a texture to it, so these are things you might have to post process if you don’t want them to show up in your molded part.
  • The laser cuts at a slight taper of (good for molds as long as you make sure you orient the part the right way so you can actually remove the parts from the mold!). Normally, when we laser cut a hole, the top side of the sheet of plastic we cut from will have a slightly larger diameter than the hole on the bottom side.

We have a low, $25 minimum order, so if you are interested in giving laser-cut acrylic a try, please send us a rough design of the parts and give us a call. Please see these pages for more information about laser cutting, file set up, and contacting us:

Please note that our laser cutting department is in the middle of moving to our new location so response time might be slower than usual.

I hope this helps!

- Candice

If you’re interested in DIY silicon molds you can see here: How to make silicone molds fast & easy / making silicone molds DIY - YouTube

1 Like

I can tell you from experience that Laser cut moulds can actually be quite difficult, have you considered having a 3D printed negative made and then making a plaster mould out of that? Might be easier.