Can LO's prefabbed honeycombs be cut or modified?

[MitchL]

One of the downsides of doing your own laser happens when you don't plan the endgame very well. My laser's table does not quite match any of the sizes of prefabbed honeycombs.

I've made a simple honeycomb out of aluminum hex core from McMaster, but it has a rather large 0.5" cell size.

Are the honeycombs in LO's catalog easily modifiable? For example, can I remove the frame, cut the honeycomb, and reassemble? I have plenty of metalworking tools.

I assume it's either "Yes, no problem" or it's really hard. My guess is that this is not worth trying, cutting the honeycomb will be painful, hard to get a clean edge, and the support rods on the inside, and possibly the frame, are probably welded in.

But: worth asking! I've got plenty of plan "B"'s to make my own honeycomb, but prefabbed ones are oh-so-convenient.

/Mitch.

[Tech_Marco]

There is no way I can give you a firm answer Yes or No. If you have proper machine, you can do things easy. But the problem is that I don't know what kind of machine (cutter) you have and how much effort are you going to invest on. Or, just simply buy customizable honeycomb from a shop


Marco

[Preso]

I made my own honeycomb bed/frame by purchasing an unexpanded honeycomb stick (cuts down on shipping costs) which can be stretched to roughly the size you need. I was able to cut the sheet with a sharp hobby knife. You just have to support the sheet near the line you want to cut and then shear each cell wall by pushing the blade smoothly downwards at about a thirty degree angle. It went a lot better than I expected it to. I cut some 12 X 12 X 1.5 aluminium angle and machined some aluminium corner blocks which had a 90 degree pocket for the angle and honeycomb to fit into. The honeycomb was 10mm thick and the angle was 10.5mm inside so the honeycomb is just held loosely against the bed of the machine. My machine came with a flat aluminium table with slots, usually called an engraving table. If you try to cut anything on these tables the material you are cutting will vaporise with the heat of the laser and then condense on the cold aluminium. This can cause oily or tarry residues on the back of the stock. I removed the slotted sheet completely and fitted the honeycomb instead. I believe this material I purchased is used mostly for composite constructions like aircraft parts and formula one cars.

My honeycomb table