I am curious to see how many of you are stepping outside the standard steel and aluminum box. I have been spending a lot of time working on custom wall-mounted frames, specifically mixing laser-engraved wood panels with raw copper tubing. Getting the laser settings perfectly dialed in for the timber art panels is incredibly rewarding, but mixing these materials definitely presents unique fabrication challenges. I would love to see what the rest of the community is fabricating with right now. Who else is incorporating alternative materials into their builds? Whether you are routing MDF, layering plywood, bending custom copper loops, or finishing things off with intricate paints and custom decals—drop some pictures or tell us about your current workflow! What is the most difficult material you have integrated into a mod so far?
Most of the people you want to chime in have left here. I've worked with copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, plexiglas, polycarbonate, polypropylene, abs, oak, pvc... anything but MDF. That stuff is trash. -Although I did do a cardboard case for a contest ages ago. Polypropylene was the biggest pain in the butt to work with. It melts insanely easily. Polycarbonate comes in second. It's tough as hell to work by hand and resists sanding and polishing. It's also guaranteed to try to kick back on a table saw.
I've done woodworking around the home, would also second the removal of MDF from existence. Wood can be forgiving if your tools are properly sharp, blunt chisels usually result in would coming off in places you didn't want. Have very limited time with plastics, they scratch so easily it's just not a material my spam hands were meant to use. Metal is my thing, it's tough, predictable and forgiving when using tools past their best.
