Cutting Steel?

[TØny Hine]

Has anyone tried cutting Steel with a laser cutter? Everywhere I see that it says it's not possible to cut steel, however from my background I have had experience in cutting Steel with oxy acetylene. This process is slightly different from just melting Steel, what actually happens is the steel is heated up till it's cherry red and then the oxygen is introduced. The steel catches fire and Burns. The oxygen stream pushes the molten iron oxide away. The iron oxide melts at a much lower temperature than the steel so the iron oxide Burns and adds heat to the process. It occurred to me that it might be possible to duplicate this process. Most scrap yards did not employ oxy acetylene cutting torches, they used oxygen and propane which produces a much cooler flame, but it was just enough to get the steel hot enough catch fire and burn. That's why another name for oxy acetylene cutting is burning, or burning torch, it is actually burning the steel itself.

[vinito]

I'm assuming you are referring to Co2 lasers because obviously machines exist for laser cutting steel all day long. They are very expensive and not within the home budget unless you're Jay Leno.

 

I'm new to this, but from what I've seen the lasers sold for cutting metal are typically powered by expensive fiber lasers.

 

Having said that, one place I saw claims that their 150W Co2 laser will cut steel or stainless steel about .030" thick, but still won't cut aluminum. That's pretty thin to be of much use, but it still means it's possible.

[MisterFixIt1952]

Much more cost effective to use a CNC plasma cutter.