How to Identify Polymers with Burnination
Confirmed: Moleskine notebooks contain PVC or other chlorinated plastics. Do not laser cut them for your safety and the safety of your laser cutter.
Adam brought his laptop in to etch today. As we all know, laser cutting PVC is bad and releases chlorine gas (which is corrosive and bad for you and your machine.) Adam’s laptop was made of an unknown polymer, and we wanted to make sure we didn’t damage our new lazzzor. Luckily, there is an easy way to determine if a plastic is okay to etch. Watch the video below, and check out this guide to polymer identification for full details. There is actually a suite of tests you use to determine the type of plastic, but the burning one is the most fun, as well as the one that detects chlorine. Enjoy!
Polymer Identification by Burnination from Zach 'Iowa' Hoeken on Vimeo.
[…] The crew at NYCResistor conducted a series of “burnination” experiments to determine the chlorine content of materials before running them through a laser cutter. They confirm recent suspicions that moleskine notebook covers contain the PVC or other chlorinated plastics. Smart move – too often I’m left wondering, “how toxic is that?” after accidentally(or intentionally) melting/burning/exploding something. More info on their technique – How to Identify Polymers with Burnination […]
[…] The crew at NYCResistor conducted a series of “burnination” experiments to determine the chlorine content of materials before running them through a laser cutter. They confirm recent suspicions that moleskine notebook covers contain the PVC or other chlorinated plastics. Smart move – too often I’m left wondering, “how toxic is that?” after accidentally(or intentionally) melting/burning/exploding something. More info on their technique – How to Identify Polymers with Burnination […]
[…] been curious about what’s in your plastic? The fellas at NYCResistor (a DIY group, not an underground insurgency) have a handy video to show us if you’ve got some […]
[…] we got the Lazor at NYCR, Adam discovered that Moleskin’s have PVC (not good) in the leather and lazering such a thing could be harmful […]