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Honeycomb or eggcrate for table

PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:55 pm
by Fred
Hi. I'm currently looking into building a Z table for my Chinese laser cutter. On eBay (UK) I've found some honeycomb in 6.4mm (1/4") or 19.1mm (3/4") cell and 10mm thick. I've also found some heating ducts as a source of eggcrate material. For those of you may have tried both, what would you recommend?

Re: Honeycomb or eggcrate for table

PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 5:35 pm
by jregholdsworth
seemed to be a bit cheaper here http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/product ... ycomb.aspx

No Idea which is best.. just starting out on the laser cutter build in South Wales..so Interested in the responses you get

regards JH

Re: Honeycomb or eggcrate for table

PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 10:43 pm
by Fred
Including shipping that appears to work out about the same price for 3x as much honeycomb. Good find. :)

Re: Honeycomb or eggcrate for table

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:49 am
by Fred
Well, I went ahead and ordered 1250mm x 625mm of honeycomb (6.4mm cell size and 10mm thick) from Easy Composites. Quality stuff and delivered quickly. It comes as a solid stick measuring about 20mm x 830mm.

I only needed enough for now for a table measuring 345mm x 230mm for my Chinese laser, but it's good to have enough for V2.0 or a larger build. I'll post a photo when I get a chance.

Some tips on cutting. I estimated the shrinkage on width when expanded of 25% so measured 465mm (shrinks down to about 348mm) on the unexpanded block and cut a slot. I worked out I needed about 40 cells (giving 256mm so a bit of leeway on my 230mm) so counted these out on the partially expanded block. The easiest way to "cut" along the honeycomb is to grab a piece in a pair of pliers and pull. The metal strips that it's made from are fairly well glued together but will come apart neatly without cutting. This also works well to trim down the piece once it's been fully expanded.