🧵 Laser & Digital Fabrication Trivia Questions & Answers
Laser cutters, CNC, 3D printing and the tools of modern making. Below are 30 free laser & digital fabrication trivia questions with answers — part of Crafting trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Crafting quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Laser & Digital Fabrication trivia questions
Q1. One 3D printer melts plastic filament, the other cures liquid resin with light — which uses resin?
Answer: SLA printer
💡 SLA stands for stereolithography — it flashes light into a vat of liquid photopolymer, hardening one thin layer at a time.
Q2. Why does every serious laser cutter setup include a fan and ducting piped outside?
Answer: To pull away smoke and fumes from burned material
💡 Burning acrylic can release hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde — nasty enough that proper fume extraction is treated as mandatory, not optional.
Q3. Which is the most forgiving 3D-printer filament for beginners, with minimal warping?
Answer: PLA
💡 PLA is made from plant starches like corn or sugar cane, prints at low temperatures, and barely warps — which is exactly why it's the default beginner filament.
Q4. Which extruder part melts filament, not just feeds it?
Answer: The hot end
💡 The 'cold end' upstream just pushes filament forward — a stepper motor and gear do the gripping.
Q5. What kind of file types are SVG and DXF for laser cutting?
Answer: Vector formats defining shapes as paths
💡 SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is web-based, made in Inkscape or Illustrator. DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) came from AutoCAD and is common in engineering.
Q6. What is the 'kerf' in laser cutting?
Answer: The width of material removed by the beam
💡 Kerf is typically 0.1-0.3mm for a CO2 laser. For precise interlocking parts like puzzle pieces or press-fit joinery, kerf must be designed for or parts won't fit.
Q7. What is 'raster engraving' on a laser cutter?
Answer: Engraving an image line by line, like a printer
💡 Raster engraving is slower than vector cutting but reproduces photos and gradients by varying laser power across each line. Speed and power set depth and shade.
Q8. Which material must NEVER be cut with a CO2 laser due to toxic gas?
Answer: PVC vinyl
💡 Cutting PVC releases chlorine gas, which is toxic and corrodes the machine's optics and metal. Chlorine test strips can check if mystery plastics contain PVC.
Q9. What controls the depth and darkness of a laser engraving?
Answer: The laser's power and speed settings
💡 A low-power, high-speed pass creates light engraving. Multiple passes or higher power and slower speed carve deeper. Designs are tested on scrap to dial in settings.
Q10. What does 'vector cutting' do on a laser cutter?
Answer: Follows outlines to cut completely through the material
💡 Software separates designs by color: red lines are typically vector cut, black fills raster engrave. This lets one design be both engraved and cut in a single job.
Q11. What is 'resin casting' in crafts?
Answer: Pouring two-part resin into molds, where it cures hard and clear
💡 Resin casting allows embedding flowers, photos, and objects in clear material. It's used for jewelry, art, river tables, and accessories. The resin-to-hardener ratio must be precise or it won't cure.
Q12. What is a 'vinyl cutter' (like a Cricut or Silhouette) used for?
Answer: Cutting thin materials into precise shapes with a guided blade
💡 Desktop vinyl cutters follow vector paths to cut sheet materials (vinyl, paper, fabric) for decals, stickers, HTV designs, and cardstock shapes. They use a blade, not heat or a laser.
Q13. A laser engraver only burns black or leaves it untouched — how does it fake a photo's grays?
Answer: Dithering: patterns of tiny dots
💡 Dithering packs dots more densely in shadows and sparsely in highlights, tricking your eye into seeing smooth grayscale from a machine that can only burn or not burn.
Q14. What four-letter acronym names a computer-guided machine tool that cuts, carves, or routes material?
Answer: CNC
💡 The first CNC prototype was built at MIT in 1952, growing out of numerical-control research pushed by aerospace engineer John T. Parsons in the late 1940s.
Q15. A laser cutter and a desktop 3D printer both read the same instruction file — what's it called?
Answer: G-code
💡 G-code has been around since the late 1950s — the same basic language now tells a 3D printer's nozzle where to squirt plastic and a laser head where to fire.
Q16. Why do some makers cover a wooden sign in painter's tape before laser-engraving it?
Answer: To block scorch marks and smoke stains
💡 The tape seals off the wood surface from the oxygen that feeds the singeing right next to the beam, so you peel it away to reveal a clean, unstained engraving.
Q17. Which cheap, compact laser do most beginners buy first, though it can't cut metal or thick hardwood?
Answer: Diode laser
💡 Modern 20–40 watt diode lasers can now rival a CO2 machine for most engraving jobs, but they still fall short on raw cutting power for thicker stock.
Q18. Hobbyist CO2 lasers handle wood, paper, and leather well, but struggle with which shiny material?
Answer: Aluminum
💡 Reflective metals like aluminum and copper can bounce the laser beam back, making them tricky or unsafe to cut.
Q19. Cutting a 3D print's layer height in half roughly does what to print time?
Answer: Nearly doubles it
💡 Going from 100 to 25 microns can even quadruple total print time.
Q20. In CNC 'feeds and speeds,' what does the feed rate measure?
Answer: How fast the tool moves
💡 Spindle speed (RPM) is the separate half of the pair — how fast the cutter itself rotates.
Q21. What's the sacrificial layer under a CNC-cut workpiece called?
Answer: The spoilboard
💡 It also gives through-cuts a flat, true reference surface instead of scratching the machine's bed.
Q22. What is 'etching on glass' in craft?
Answer: Using acid cream or sandblasting to frost glass
💡 Armour Etch cream uses bifluoride salts (ammonium and sodium bifluoride), not pure hydrofluoric acid. Applied through a vinyl stencil, it permanently frosts glass in minutes.
Q23. Why can a fiber laser slice shiny stainless steel that a hobby CO2 laser struggles to cut?
Answer: Its shorter wavelength gets absorbed by metal
💡 A CO2 beam sits around 10.6 micrometers while a fiber beam is about 1 micrometer — that shorter wavelength gets soaked up by metal rather than bouncing off it.
Q24. Which laser accessory turns a curved tumbler so an engraved design wraps perfectly around it?
Answer: A rotary attachment
💡 A roller-style rotary attachment spins the tumbler while the laser head moves, so the design wraps evenly all the way around a curved surface.
Q25. What's the software called that chops a 3D model into flat layers a printer can build?
Answer: Slicer
💡 A slicer's real output is G-code — without it, your 3D printer has no idea how to turn a digital shape into hundreds of stacked layers.
Q26. What's the name of the 3D-printing process Chuck Hull invented and patented in the 1980s?
Answer: Stereolithography
💡 Hull filed his patent for it in 1984, which is often cited as the official birth of 3D printing.
Q27. Why does 3D printing's benchmark test model look like a tugboat?
Answer: Combines many features
💡 Its official name is 3DBenchy, and it's believed to be the most 3D-printed object in the world.
Q28. Past what overhang angle do most FDM prints need added supports?
Answer: 45 degrees
💡 Overhangs past about 60 degrees are almost always doomed without support underneath.
Q29. 3D printing builds objects layer by layer — what does CNC milling do instead?
Answer: Cuts material away
💡 Subtractive methods generate scrap chips; additive methods deposit almost only what's needed.
Q30. Which 3D-printing filament turns unusable after minutes exposed to air?
Answer: Nylon
💡 An exposed nylon spool can be soaked enough to ruin prints in as little as 15 minutes.
Think you know laser & digital fabrication?
BUZZ tracks what you’ve mastered and serves exactly what you need next. Play free — no signup to start.
PLAY FREE →