Tips for Hole Punching Verk Visors

In this doc, you'll learn: best practices for selecting and hole punching plastic for 3D verkistan face shields.

Before You Begin

• Get some plastic transparencies. See discussion below for selection criteria if you're not sure.
• Optional but recommended: find access to a laser cutter; we used an epilog 60, courtesy of NYC Resistor. Your local fabrication shop or maker space may be able to help.

Quickstart

• Select a clear plastic you can buy that comes separated with tissue paper between each transparency.
• Laser cut holes in it according to this pattern
  • begin with a test to make sure the pattern fits your verk frames
  • experiment to see how many your laser cutter can cut at once, to maximize speed.

Selecting Plastic

Plastic for verk shields should be:

• lightweight: typically 5-15 mil
• clear: many transparencies meant for writing on have a slight tint that is unpleasant to look through.
• consistent: cheaper plastics will have slightly variable thicknesses, which will make things look wavy or 'under water' when worn.
• Separated by tissue paper; otherwise the laser cutter will melt the plastic together and ruin it.

Our favorite was duralar transparencies (link TBD)

Cutting Holes

The fastest route to cutting holes in transparencies at scale was a laser cutter. Parameters:

• We used an epilog 60 with a 4" laser.
• With this, we were able to cut approximately 50 transparencies in an approximately one minute cut.

Pointers and gotchas:

• Do a test run first to make sure your cut fits your frame. If it doesn't, adjust the holes in the pattern until they fit.
• Laser cutting a stack of plastic and tissue is a major fire risk. Watch the cutter at all times, and have a class C halotron fire extinguisher on hand.
• Transparencies are heavy. Ideally you can find a place to cut where you can also pack and distribute from, to cut down on a difficult carting step.