Author Topic: Cutting Acrylic with lazer  (Read 1890 times)

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Offline luiHS

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2018, 08:29:36 pm »
 
I do not think you can cut such thick acrylic with such a low power laser. I have a laser cutter with 60W tube, and I'm doing fine. The cheapest cutters usually mount at least a 40W tube.

With a 2.5W laser, I do not think you can cut something thicker than a paper, those lasers are not made for cutting, you need much more power and that is only achieved with tube lasers, not with solid state lasers.
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2018, 08:32:48 pm »
2.5W 445nm will melt a ditch in black acrylic but the beam will pass right through transparent stuff. As mentioned above, you'll need a CO2 laser to do what you want, 10W with a good focusing lens might do it for thin material but 40W+ is going to be better.
 
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Offline Gyro

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2018, 08:56:41 pm »
BTW.... Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. We're not letting you guys get away with changing another 's' to a 'z'!  :P

I would have thought that there was more chance of melting than clean cutting at that sort of thickness too.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2018, 09:09:21 pm by Gyro »
Best Regards, Chris
 
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Online Mechatrommer

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2018, 11:27:45 pm »
BTW.... Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. We're not letting you guys get away with changing another 's' to a 'z'!  :P
then start teaching people to pronounce laser as "lesser", not "lazzier" without "i", it will eliminate all confusion and making your campaign a lot much easier. err "easier" should be "easier" not "eazzier" :P
Nature: Evolution and the Illusion of Randomness (Stephen L. Talbott): Its now indisputable that... organisms “expertise” contextualizes its genome, and its nonsense to say that these powers are under the control of the genome being contextualized - Barbara McClintock
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2018, 11:30:58 pm »
Sharks with frickken laazzzer beams!!
 

Offline Kappes Buur

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2018, 11:37:11 pm »
 
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Offline Mr.B

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2018, 01:53:23 am »
I have a 50w VersaLaser brand cutter/engraver.
It can cut 10mm acrylic very cleanly but gets a small slope on 12mm thick stock.
There is no way a 2.5w laser is going to cut 5mm acrylic even with the best focusing optics.
I approach the thinking of all of my posts using AI in the first instance. (Awkward Irregularity)
 

Online ajb

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2018, 02:49:57 pm »
It's not just a question of power, it's also a question of wavelength.  A material like clear acrylic that is visibly transparent by definition has low absorption for all visible wavelengths, so 90% (depending on thickness) of a blue laser's energy is going to go straight through and out the other side of the material without touching anything useful along the way.  Acrylic becomes much more absorptive when you get out past 2200nm or so, which is why CO2 lasers at 10600nm (where acrylic is quite opaque) work so well.
 

Offline rstofer

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2018, 03:04:41 pm »
I have a related question:  When I use my CNC mill to drill a hole, I tell the CAM software the diameter of the hole and, if I am using an end mill, it figures out how to cut the hole for a given tool diameter.  But it knows the exact cutter diameter.

Are laser cutters exact in terms of cut diameter?  I have bought some very nice plastic assemblies for various things and the fit seemed quite good.
 

Offline Fred27

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Re: Cutting Acrylic with lazer
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2018, 04:59:20 pm »
Yes - the kerf of a laser is small but it needs to be known and taken into account to make accurate cuts. It is also conical due to the way it is focused.
 


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