How do you get two pieces of laser-cut acrylic to join at right angles? One solution is to glue them together using crenelations at the edges to increase the joint strength.

Crenelations are what they call the pattern on top of European castle walls. Crenels are the cuts, merlons are the teeth, and if you want to learn more, see wikipedia here. (I note that wikipedia spells crenelation with two L’s, but the WordPress spell-checker prefers only one.)

There’s information about how to glue crenelated laser-cut acrylic boxes together with acetone at the Curious Inventor Blog.

As you can see in the above illustration, I’m adapting my Sketchup design of an acrylic robot casing to add crenelations so that it can be glued. I’m still partial to just bolting the sides together, but I wanted to explore the options.

And yes, I had fun thinking up the title for this entry.