Laser Cutter max working dimensions

[Don Chiou]

Good afternoon folks,

I haven't been able to get out to the workshop yet, but I have been playing around in inkscape to do outlines for laser cutting bits.

I was wondering if anyone could be so kind to share with me what the maximum working size for the medium being cut, and the boundaries of the laser (I'm assuming the cut medium can be slightly bigger than the track dimensions of the laser?).

I have a few projects in mind (keyboard person here who came to the meetup), which was originally a custom numberpad, but now that my wife has spilt a milkshake over her keyboard, I'm now thinking of expanding into a full-sized keyboard.

Also, if there were any particular things I should be aware of if I am designing my cut lines in inkscape? I am happy to share somewhere/somehow my current file if people wanted to critique its technical details.

Much appreciated.

Don

[Paul Hutchison]

Hi Don,

Rough guide is a cutting area of 600x400mm for the old laser, I believe the new laser is slightly larger but not ready for use yet.  Allow a margin for head turnaround if you're wanting to engrave right across the bed near the edge (I believe 50mm or so from the left/right is enough, though don't quote me), making the engravable area around 500x400.

Max cutting thickness for a single pass is around 5-6mm for ply / acrylic, but at that thickness you have to go really slow and there's greater risk of burning stuff you don't mean to (think: BAD). 3-4mm is fine.

Kerf (cutting width) is around 0.125mm (at least, that's the ballpark I use), although this varies a bit depending on the material, power and cutting speed.  You need to account for this if you're expecting snug fits for your parts.

Hope that helps,

Paul

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[Don Chiou]

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much. It would be more than adequate for a full size, and enough to lay out a few layers in one pass by the looks of it.

I had planned the layers to be either 1.5mm, 2mm or 3mm so the thickness shouldn't be an issue.  Now to do more designing and then save money up for the layers. :)

Cheers,

Don

[John Slee]

On Friday, 30 September 2016 14:41:24 UTC+10, PaulH wrote:

Max cutting thickness for a single pass is around 5-6mm for ply / acrylic, but at that thickness you have to go really slow and there's greater risk of burning stuff you don't mean to (think: BAD). 3-4mm is fine.

Not relevant to this topic (per Don's other post) but correcting for anyone searching old posts: this isn't true; you can indeed cut pretty thick acrylic with the old laser.

I had pretty good (and pretty bad) results cutting ~10mm clear acrylic end cheeks for my big synth case. One cheek was a single-pass cut and turned out awful with scorching and ugliness (though still perfectly usable). The other cheek was cut with 3+ passes. I don't remember if I adjusted the focus between passes or not but it came out very clean indeed.

Also I don't think I could manage more than ~580mm usable cutting (not engraving) width, though I might have missed something.

I recall Tim demonstrating one day with a slab of 25mm almost-clear acrylic. There is a function I can never find on the control panel that just turns the laser on/off without moving the head. Was interesting to observe it burning slowly down through that massive lump of acrylic and then suddenly skewing dramatically sideways.

John

[Lewys Martin]

Hey Bro, 

ive made keyboards on the cutter, youll want a really thin material if you expect the switches to click in, <1.5mm at minimum. 

Otherwise if you dont mind hot glueing the switches fo for your life with any material! 

it can cut things pretty freaking finely, ive got a bamboo plate with cosar stabs holes cut, and theres fraction of a mm cuts! 

https://i1.wp.com/blog.lewys.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/img_1024.jpg?resize=768%2C1024

https://blog.lewys.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/img_1011.mov

https://blog.lewys.eu/?p=387

Hit me up if you have any more keeb questions =D

[Don Chiou]

Hi Lewys,

Yeah, I've got a multi-layer sandwich kind of build in mind using different thickness layers, including 1.5mm click in plate. I had originally designed it for a numpad, but am now thinking about doing a full size 104 key, so was after the size dimensions, and how many layers I could fit into one sheet for each cut pass :)

In regards to how the software works, is it okay to have everything in 1 SVG but as different layers? e.g. toggle on/off layers, or would they have to be one separate svg per layer?

[Lewys Martin]

You can lay all the parts out in the svg and select which you want printed, yep.

Be careful that the plate holds its strength, my boo plats sags in the middle even with 10 spacers around the sides, it could have really used one in the middle (and it's only a 40% board! )

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[Paul]

Old black laser is 600x380, as of two weeks ago the red one wasn't operational.

[Don Chiou]

More than plenty to do 2 full size layers in one sheet, or multiple numpad layers in one pass!

My design is 4 layers of 1.5mm so hopefully it'll be strong enough.

[Lewys Martin]

What material are you using

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[Kris]

Old Black laser is cutting fine
3mm acrylic at 12mm 80%
Ok so fine isn't quite right, but it's working and cutting nicely (but slowly)

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From: Don Chiou <fle...@gmail.com>
Sent: 9 October 2016 10:48:50 AM AEDT
To: Robots & Dinosaurs <sydney-h...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [RnD] Re: Laser Cutter max working dimensions

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Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[Don Chiou]

I am planning on acrylic. It'll be 4 layers under the switches, plus open rings for the hand-wiring space, which can be any thickness

On Sunday, October 9, 2016 at 10:50:22 AM UTC+11, Lewys Martin wrote:

What material are you using

On 9 Oct. 2016 10:48 am, "Don Chiou" <fle...@gmail.com> wrote:

More than plenty to do 2 full size layers in one sheet, or multiple numpad layers in one pass!

My design is 4 layers of 1.5mm so hopefully it'll be strong enough.

On Sunday, October 9, 2016 at 10:46:48 AM UTC+11, Paul wrote:

Old black laser is 600x380, as of two weeks ago the red one wasn't operational.

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