Take a look at these very delicate laser cut elements that form a spiral staircase. This was made in a course which was about creating analytical scale models. The stairs are made from 0.5 mm plywood. These very thin elements were laser cut.

Can you see all those small circles with square holes cut out? They are designed to slide over a square centre beam. The steps also have square holes, but each square is turned with a different angle. This trick secures the position of each step, resulting in a very precise model at scale 1:100.