It’s hard not to be a fan of LEGO. The humble plastic bricks from Denmark enabled many a young engineer to bring their architectural and mechanical fantasies to life. But one limitation was t… ...

[Sonodera] built an omniwheel out of laser cut MDF. MDF–or Medium Density Fiberboard–makes up all the parts of the wheel. There’s no plastic or metal at all.

Laser cutting works by directing a laser together with a motion control system to follow a pattern to be cut out of a sheet of material. The laser either melts, burns, vaporizes away the material, or ...