Laser Cutter Suggestions

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by R.C.

Routered for sure, those guys router like monsters!

-RC

For sure. They router a ton of wood and metal. They even router their hole pattern so they don't have to do it manually.

[protoserge]

We just got training on the school's new Universal Laser VLS3.50. The training rep said the rule of thumb is about 10W/0.1" of material thickness for acrylic and light woods.

[Oblarg]

There's a lasercutter in the lab I work in which 4464 is making good use of. No, it can't cut metal, but honestly if you're creative and you know the properties of your materials, it's surprising the number of things you can do without metal. We mainly use it for delrin, and it's incredibly useful. Sure, it'd be nicer if we could CNC metal parts, but we're doing some pretty cool stuff with delrin.

[yash101]

This makes me think that even though our team is gifted so many neat tools, like three 3D printers, Laser-cutting machine, 6-axis CNC (upon request), CNC router, all these amazing tools. We have used the 3D printer a couple of times, but nothing much, otherwise.

[eli2410]

You could use Cermark, mark where you want to cut with it (engraves without destroying laser, comes out black) and then cut the lines with a band saw or something else.

[MetalJacket]

Originally Posted by eli2410

You could use Cermark, mark where you want to cut with it (engraves without destroying laser, comes out black) and then cut the lines with a band saw or something else.

That is a really interesting idea that I hadn't considered before. Thanks!

[eli2410]

Originally Posted by MetalJacket

That is a really interesting idea that I hadn't considered before. Thanks!

Never done it, be interested to know how it works out. Kind of came up with it as I was reading this. Suggested it to Team 1997 yesterday when they came to see our laser. As they said "that would be much better than just looking at the drawing and saying 'that looks about right' and marking it with a 1/4" thick sharpie."

Originally Posted by Oblarg

Also of note:

Acrylic cuts the nicest, of the materials I've worked with, but it's brittle and structurally worthless so I wouldn't recommend building anything out of it.

Polycarb doesn't work at all, so don't even try that.

You can lasercut paper to make very nice templates.

Agree on that, though make sure you have some ventilation when you cut or engrave anything besides paper (turned our ventilation on the other day as I was about to cut paper, paper went into the ventilation system). If engraving something that's clear, mirror the image you are engraving, so that when it is facing the right way, that side is smooth. Also, clean stuff such as acrylic, glass, metal (before cermark), etc. before you engrave it. We found out that, by looking at other websites, people suggest Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner specifically for it. Don't know why everyone is so specific, but it works well. We use the concentrate at full strength and haven't had a problem.