I was able to get the slots cut into the PVC pipe but the width of it was inconsistent and different on each side. This caused the laser-cut piece to get stuck in certain areas, but the other pieces of the mechanism came out fine. The glue from the hot glue gun also fell off on some parts or didn’t keep the mechanism together. I’m planning on laser-cutting a new piece instead of sanding the slots. For the areas that need to be glued, I’m not sure what other methods there are. Besides those issues, everything else was fine. I couldn’t get any testing done at this point due to the issue with the slots.

Slots on the side of the PVC pipe

The glue keeping the spring and laser-cut piece together