Summary

This is not really a hack, it's just... an odd use of the laser cutter.

1) You can cut carpet on a laser cutter

2) Use the flame-test to determine if the material is cuttable

3) Cutting carpet actually works quite well

4) Carpet seaming tape is awesome

5) I can drive for another couple of years before replacing the carpet.

You might also like my other project.

The problem

The carpet under the accelerator in my vehicle wears out every couple of years.

Replacements never fit properly, and I *hate* them. "Fits all model trucks" really means "lots of wrinkles, and slides around because the grommet holes don't match the floor cleats".

Looking at the problem got me thinking: "I wonder if the laser cutter will handle carpet?"

The Flame Test

The first question to ask is whether the material can be cut in the laser. To find out, we perform a flame test.

Laser cutting chlorine based materials will release hydrochloric gas (HCL), which is highly corrosive and will eat away at the mirror surfaces and other hardware, especially aluminum. This is not an exaggeration: the gas is *very* aggressive, and cutting chlorine-based materials such as PVC is one of the things that will get you walked out of my hackerspace.

We keep a torch, lighter, and bits of copper wire next to the laser, just so people won't have an excuse for not doing the test.

First, heat a copper wire to red hot.

Next, touch the hot wire to the material to be cut.

Place the wire back into the flame and note any color changes. Yellow is normal, green indicates the presence of chlorine.

(The hot wire picks up bits of molten material, and chlorine in the material will form copper chloride which glows green in the flame. Yellow indicates sodium, which is pretty-much everywhere.)

So far, so good: the original mat is OK to cut. Check the replacement carpet as well.

Cutting the patch

With both carpets testing OK to cut (including the rubbery backing), line up the floor mat and excise a circular section.

I'm using 65% power at 12mm/sec and 2 passes on our 80 Watt laser (your settings will be different).

Without changing the dimensions, excise a similar plug from the replacement carpet:

Carpet seaming tape

The term "carpet tape" refers to double-sided tape meant to keep carpets from sliding around. I'm using "seaming" tape, which is single-sided and meant to glue two abutting pieces together.

Also, there's hot and cold seaming tape. Hot tape requires a special heater to melt the glue into the weave of the backing, I'm using the "cold" type, available at Lowes, Home Depot, and many other places.

Peel off the back and apply. This stuff is VERY sticky... something to note for future projects.

Final installation

Step on the plug a couple of times to work the tape adhesive into the backing, and reinstall in the vehicle.

And there you have it: good for another couple of years.

Discussion

This was so easy it leads me to think of artistic uses for the technique.

For example, given two colors of carpet tile, you could cut patterns and swap the colors so that each tile contains a custom pattern.

It shouldn't be too hard to make a carpet version of an M.C. Escher pattern, for instance. Angels and devils, black geese flying against white geese, and so on.

I'd be interested to hear of any hacker/artist that does this. Let me know...