Hello all,
Want to cut out an inside rectangle in a 2" or so thick book. Been doing it with scrollsaw, but wondering if laser can handle such a task.
Thanks
Manny
I’ve cut paper on a 40W laser in the past. It works well, but you have to watch it like a hawk because it likes to catch fire. Set the power super low and the cut speed to max.
I actually have a question about cutting paper in the laser cutter. So what if it’s an individual piece of paper, will the pieces I cut out fly away and into the laser?
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It depends on the size of the pieces. If they are small they definitely will. I’m guessing less than 1 square inch is highly likely to fly away … possibly even larger. If you are cutting something a little heavier (like scrapbook paper) that will help.
I cut lots of little paper pieces and I leave a little “tag” attached to each so they don’t fly away (i.e., I don’t cut the entire perimeter of any pieces I want to save). Remembering that you will get .008 to .010" of kerf, if you plan a tag that is .020 wide it should be adequate. It’s super easy to just trim those up later with an Xacto knife.
Chris
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Manny, If you succeed, please post your settings for the rest of us to learn from. It’s a pretty fussy process.
I have cut paper on our laser, but I have not had success with gang cutting multiple sheets. I used 14% vector current, 100% speed, 5% power and was able to cut a single sheet of “regular notebook” paper in one pass. I was not able to cut a single sheet of paper with less current/power than this However, this was during a time when the laser was not working particularly well so those settings may be high for its current operation. When I tried to cut multiple sheets at this same setting and multiple passes, it kept catching on fire.
Couple caveats about things that may influence your success - avoid small geometry - that exacerbates the fire problem. And it’s possible that the density of the stack may also influence it. My stack of paper may have had some space in it and I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.
Chris
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Turn off the air assist, it will prevent the pieces from being blown away.
And ALWAYS watch the entire cutting process like a hawk as stated earlier, you
will have to deal with a fire at some point.
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I don’t know if DMS’s laser has this feature, but the one that I used had variable airflow speed on the evacuation system. We discovered that there were certain speeds that encouraged fires and others that actually put them out.
Please don’t disable the air assist. Use magnets to hold down paper.
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I was cutting some Luster paper (from Creative Arts) on the laser and these are the settings I found (about 2 months ago so the laser may of adjusted since then):
Luster paper etch
100 speed
20 power
20 current
Luster paper cut
100 speed
20 power
45 current
These settings might be right on for stacks of paper (keeping the luster paper thickness in mind). I have been considering slicing STL models using paper thickness (to get really fine detail on very small models) and I’ll post test settings when/if I do that. And yes, the air assist will pop up cut out paper, but my cutting was straight lines so with some strategic circle magnet placement nothing got messed up.
-the purring dork
Is it possible to flood the cutting area with co2 to prevent fire?
For some definition of flood, yes. The black CO2 bottle on top of the laser cutter (for small fires) and the CO2 extinguisher on the wall (for bigger fires) are for that purpose.
By flood I mean pump CO2 gas into the area where and when cutting occurs. No O2 = no burning
That would be bad for any humans in that space. You would have to flood the entire room to make that work. Humans need some double-digit percentage of oxygen to breath, but fires need only 9%, meaning that you would suffocate before the fire would. Inasmuch as our laser cutter is in the warehouse, the entire warehouse would have to be flooded.
It also keeps the soot and smoke from fouling up the lens, which can later heat up and crack it.
Hello,
I’m a newbie. I have found this tread through the google search, so no surprise that i’m not from Dallas.
Actually, I’m from far away, however can i ask for advice?
So, I’m going to use Sculpfun s6 pro 40w cutting machine to cut cards. They are about just above 1 square inch cut from 8.5 x 11 inch paper, about 13 sheets at once and not so thin paper it is.
So, to prevent flying away, when cutting vertically, the props are not needed,
but then when cutting horizontally, i want to put on top some wooden slats about 3mm thick.
My question is, if i can set up a laser machine a little bit higher (3-4 mm) to not to hit these wooden slats when operating. Thank you upfront for any advice, Bart
No, I imagine your laser has a focal length it needs to be focused at and if you raise the laser up it will not be in focus anymore and won’t cut well.
Maybe i will use magnet sheets instead.
What, if the laser is lifted up about 1mm only?
The focus will be still ok?
It is SCULPFUN S6 Pro 40W Laser Engraving Machine Ultra-thin Focus.
Thank You!
The focus will probably not be OK. It will generate a big, thick, blurry line . The proper solution is to modify your vector and add a few “tabs”; i.e., breaks in the cutting line where the laser doesn’t cut. The tabs only need to be 0.020" long. Your part will not completely separate from the workpiece and it’s super easy to cut those few tabs with an X-Acto knife or similar.
I am not aware of an automated way to generate the tabs.
BTW, I don’t recommend cutting more than one sheet at a time. The only time I tried this it caught on fire. Big time.
John_Marlow, the idea of tabs is great, thank you!
Do you think that it is difficult to program the laser to leave this tiny areas untouched.
It will be like making two lines with a very small break ------------------- -----------------------
I dont have the machine yet but theorethically it should be possible, why not?
You’re doing this in your original artwork. It’s very easy. Create the full vector line, add a couple points in the middle of the line, and then delete the vector segment between the points.