Alternative laser tray

[Jarren Butterworth]

When I'm cutting many tiny things I find a lot of them just fall through the grill in the laser and it can be pretty hard to find them all or pick them up, specially when they get blown away.  Is there any laser safe material that could be used like a little tray or dish under the laser to catch all the little bits that fall down?  Would just an old ceramic plate or bowl work ok?  I was thinking of taking the tray out of the laser and just placing cardboard on top of a dish or something and letting all the tiny bits fall in. 

[Derek Jacoby]

Sure, basically anything non-reflective is fine. I'd suggest that ceramic may be too reflective and cause you to see burns on the back of your pieces (along with a bit of a risk of reflecting back at the mirrors and such, although that's a pretty minor risk - if they can take the beam one way they're unlikely to be damaged by reflections the other direction, although it is focused at that point I guess.)

Brushed aluminum might be your best bet. Take a piece of the sheet aluminum and scuff it up with sandpaper? Can go directly against the aluminum on the bed, of course, but it's awfully sticky down there...

Thx,

Derek

On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 9:30 AM, Jarren Butterworth <baron...@gmail.com> wrote:

When I'm cutting many tiny things I find a lot of them just fall through the grill in the laser and it can be pretty hard to find them all or pick them up, specially when they get blown away.  Is there any laser safe material that could be used like a little tray or dish under the laser to catch all the little bits that fall down?  Would just an old ceramic plate or bowl work ok?  I was thinking of taking the tray out of the laser and just placing cardboard on top of a dish or something and letting all the tiny bits fall in. 

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[Jarren Butterworth]

I have some brushed aluminum scrap from all my sign making, I could bend the corners up a bit and make a tray.  Yeah I just need somewhere for the pieces to fall that isn't sticky and I can pour out into a container.

Heck for a use or two I bet even corrugated cardboard would work.  The laser would be pretty out of focus by the time it hit the cardboard and as long as it's not totally laser'd to shreds it would do the job.