acrylic animal puzzle

To cut acrylic with a laser, I would always recommend cutting a test rectangle first! You can of course also create a whole matrix, but it is often enough to cut out a small rectangle in the corner of your acrylic plate using the settings given here. If you want to make any changes to the animals now, for example another opening or a heart in one of the puzzle pieces, you can do that in XTool Creative Space! I will come back to this in one of the next steps and show you how to use these options! 

TIP: If you use black acrylic, you will hardly see your lines with the camera in XTool Creative Space. Simply go to the layer at the bottom left and set a light color!

When the laser has cut the puzzle pieces out of acrylic, a small burr often remains on the edge of the pieces. This can be removed relatively easily with fine sandpaper and the pieces can be polished a little more (>400 grit).

Have you read this far? Congratulations! Now I'll show you how you can use the puzzle pieces: As a keychain! All you need is a few larger holes in the animals and you'll have a sturdy keychain that won't break easily because it's made of acrylic! That's one of the great advantages of the material! 

Idea: If you give away lots of small animals as keychains to your friends (perhaps even matching the person's personality), you can solve the puzzle together when you meet up!

Finally, your puzzle needs a frame! This can of course be designed and labeled as you wish in XTool Creative Space. The .XCS file in the attachment only contains the rectangular version with a simple text field below. But be creative! This frame has a lot of potential for other shapes, more text or maybe even its own box! Using the settings above, the two pieces are cut and then glued together with superglue. 

The perfect gift with acrylic parts is ready, and because it is so sturdy, it will last for quite a while! Have fun!