Can you laser cut carbon fibre sheets??

[DomK]

I know that the space is pledging for a shapeoko but I was wondering if the laser cutter can handle carbon fibre sheets as I need to build new arms for my 250.

[Henry Sands]

Sadly not, you'll have to wait until the shapoko is up and running.

[Billy]

The pledge happened, and we've got the Shapeoko. It's still being set up. Have a chat with Mentar and see what help they need.

Alternatively, there's some CNC machines for hire in Vymer Street, at the Machines Room, http://machinesroom.org/

[timour chomilier]

The cnc in theory can cut carbon fiber, the problem being filtration of the carbon particle wich for the moment is not on the to-do list

[Adrian Godwin]

I can see how that would be unpleasant on the shapeoko.

What's the mechanism on the laser cutter ? The carbon fibre is embedded in epoxy resin. The laser would burn the resin, creating a carbon-heavy smoke as it does with all materials. The carbon fibres are already pure carbon so presumably can only burn to CO2, but perhaps add some different particulate size to the smoke. Would this clog the filter ? Or, perhaps worse, pass through it ?

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 1:08 PM, timour chomilier <chom...@gmail.com> wrote:

The cnc in theory can cut carbon fiber, the problem being filtration of the carbon particle wich for the moment is not on the to-do list

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[Russ Garrett]

On 31 May 2015 at 13:24, Adrian Godwin <artg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What's the mechanism on the laser cutter ? The carbon fibre is embedded in
> epoxy resin. The laser would burn the resin, creating a carbon-heavy smoke
> as it does with all materials. The carbon fibres are already pure carbon so
> presumably can only burn to CO2, but perhaps add some different particulate
> size to the smoke. Would this clog the filter ? Or, perhaps worse, pass
> through it ?

I believe it simply doesn't work. A bit like cutting fibreglass, you
end up with a lot of charring and no actual cutting, at least on
relatively low-end laser powers (you might have more luck with a
machine in the kilowatt range).

I think waterjet is the CNC method of choice for carbon fibre. Milling
it, as already covered, is very dusty and hard on the tools.

--
Russ Garrett
ru...@garrett.co.uk