FAQ
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Do you offer student discounts?
You bet! Email us from your .edu email account and you’ll get 10% off your fabrication costs (discounts don’t apply to materials).
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Do you offer discounts to bulk orders?
Yes, we can offer disocunts on bulk orders, get in touch with your specific order to find out more. We also provide a 10% discount on laser costs for jobs that have 4 or more of the same materials in the overal job.
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What materials can you laser cut on your machines?
The materials we can work with include:
- Paper
- Card
- Boxboard
- Screenboard
- Corrugated Card
- Plywood (Poplar and Basswood)
- MDF (only large shapes and minimal cutting area)
- Solid Basswood
- Acrylic / Perspex (Clear, Frosted and Coloured)
The materials we cannot work with include:
- Metals
- Vinyl / PVC
- Foam / Polystyrene
- Foamcore
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What materials can you CNC mill?
The 2D sheet materials we can mill include:
- Plywood
- Acrylic / Perspex
The 3D block materials we can mill include:
- High Density Foam
- Blue Foam
- Jelutong
- Walnut
- Mahogany
- Tooling Board
- Other medium to soft woods
The materials we cannot mill include:
- Aluminium
- Dense Metals
- Stone
- Corrian
- Hard woods
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What materials can I print in?
The materials we can print in include:
- PLA – White Plastic (FDM)
- Resin – White/Clear (SLA)
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Can I supply my own materials?
We welcome other material. However the team needs to determine the safety and validity of the materials provided. Please let us know in advance for us to organise. Certain materials are either hazardous to our health or the health of our machines. Make Workshop reserves the right to decline requests with mexternal materials which are not suitable.
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What is the difference between interanl cut, external cut, score and raster?
An internal cut is a cut that is cut first, eg the centre of a donut. An external cut is a cut that is the outside of the donut. A score is a light engraving of the surface that does not cut through. A raster is a filled region seared by the laser in tiny incremenets.
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What is the difference between Fuse Deposition Modelling (FMD) and Stereolithography (SLA)?
Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing process when material is added in layers through a heated extruder. Selective Laser Sintering (SLA) uses an additive resin hat is heated by a laser to form a solid.
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How do you calculate the prices of your services?
The cost depends on a few factors: what materials you use and how much, the complexity of the job (i.e. how much time it will take) as well as any associated labour costs. To give an exact price we need a file supplied in one of the templates we provide on our website. For ballpark figures please see below:
- Laser cutting is priced at $1.00 per minute. We calculate the time based on the amount of curves and the associated time taken to cut each material. For eg; 2mm acrylic is faster (and thus cheaper) than 6mm acrylic.
- 3D printing is based on material used and quality required with a set up fee, equating approximately to 20 cents per cubic centimeter (cm3).
- CNC is charged at $135.00 per hour with a $40.00+ GST set up fee
- 3D modelling services are charged at $80.00+ GST per hour.
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How quickly can I get my order?
For laser cutting, we offer same day pick up service, or 1-2 day delivery service. For CNC milling, turn around time is generally 3-5 days providing we have the material in stock. For 3D Printing depending on what method you selected it can take between 1-5 business days.
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How do I pay?
We accept direct bank transfer, or credit card payments (2.9% surcharge for credit cards). Keep in mind we require the payment to be made before preceeding with your job, so a direct bank tranfer method may take a bit longer than the other methods. In this case you should send us proof of the payment so that we can get started cutting your job!
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Can I pop into the studio at any time to discuss my project?
We request you shoot us an email or call us first to make an appointment. We are a small team of makers and generally have a lot of jobs going on at once so things can get quite busy in our workspace. Please give us a heads-up so we can ensure that we have time and can attend to what you need.
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What are the size of your machines?
- Our laser cutters have a bed size of 1200 mm by 900 mm.
- Our FDM 3D printers have a build volume of 223 mm by 223 mm by 205 mm.
- The SLA 3D printer has a build volume of 250 mm by 150 mm by 205 mm.
- Our CNC milling machine has a bed size of 1200 mm by 1200 mm.
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What file types do you accept?
While we predominantly work in Rhino we accept all major filetypes: .3dm .ai .pdf .stl .dxf etc.
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What are the conditions for same day express laser cutting?
- All requests for jobs must be made before 11am to ensure same day service.
- All orders must have payments processed prior to 12pm to ensure same day service.
- Make Workshop ensures the completion of work by 11.59pm of the same day.
- Should clients fail to pickup their work on the same day within the specified time, pickup will be scheduled for the next business day.
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Can I return items?
Sometimes mistakes do happen. Make Workshop will accept returns on any unfortunate mistakes that may happen as a result of our operations. We also offer recutting and in some cases, redelivery if something doesnt look quiet right for you!
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What type of tolerances do I need to allow for?
Material tolerances, we buy our material in bulk from the manufacturers and no two sheets are the same.
- When laser cutting acrylic, it is prone to melting and warping because of the heat generated, so you can space out your cuts to not overheat any one particular area (use the cut 1 and cut 2 layers). We tend to account for 0.3mm being removed with each cut line.
- For CNC milling, the tool thicness varies from 6mm to 15mm, if you are planning on having notches in your CNC job, its best to use mickey mouse ears or leave and extra 0.6mm +. For larger jobs, we recommend getting in touch with us to have a sample done.
- When 3D printing, we don’t recommend cutting anything under 1.5mm. Allow for a similar 0.5 mm tollerances when prints need to slot together easily.