Plexi vs aluminum parts

Hi,
Sorry of this is a F.A.Q, I could find anything in the forum.

would laser cut 5 mm acrylic (plexiglas) work as a substitute for the aluminum parts?

regards,
/Lars

Yes and no. We did build a prototype with acrylic plates before. The thing about them is that they are pretty strong along the plane of the plate, but not nearly rigid enough against forces normal to the plane. So they work decently for the track plates, gantry wheel plates, the motor mount plate, the driveshaft bearing plate, and the z-axis cable carrier mount. But they don’t work well for the gantry corners, the cross-slide, or the tool bay because those parts need to be rigid against forces normal to the plate.

Also, they are easy to crack if you tighten stuff too tight. So you may want to use lexan instead (but that doesn’t laser well)

In general I would recommend you use aluminum. But if you are on a budget, have access to a laser, and are perhaps building a smaller sized FarmBot, then you might be able to get away with acrylic.

Thanks!
As I plan to build a rather small farmbot and have access to a lasercutter it sounds like a good plan to start with plexi and replace any parts that are not up to it.

regards,
/Lars