Cutting Formica on the laser cutter

[Kate Powell]

Hi, I haven't been down for a while but I'm here now and trying to cut some Formica on the laser cutter again, despite having written down all the settings for cutting and engraving down which worked previously after a lot of experimentation it's not working in the same way. Can anyone shed any light on it please?

Surely it should work, or am I missing something?

Cheers,
Kate

[Matthew Daubney]

Hi Kate,

There has been some loss of power in the cutter recently, I know that Simon an Gary where intending to redo the plumbing to remove the buildup of green nastyness in the tubes. It might also just need it's mirrors cleaning ("just") depnding what's been being cut on it recently.

I'm sure Simon/Gary/Ryan will be on shortly to shed a bit more light on the issue! If it's acting like it's got less power, cutting a touch slower should compensate a bit.

-Matt Daubney

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[Barnaby]

For cutting check:

The aquarium cooler is on (switch near its base, needs to be turned off
when you turn off the laser).
The air-assist pump is on (Can only really tell by touching it; switch
on the laser control panel, best to just leave it on).
The bed height is set so the surface of material is 62mm below the top
of metal plate on head.
The rotary knob on the laser cutter is set so that the dial reads 20mA
when cutting (can only be read whilst cutting).
You use the correct cutting speed. For 3mm acrylic 15mm/s for 8mm 6mm/s
are good starting points but some things go down to 1mm/s.

Try a few acrylic cuts to confirm the laser-cutter is working
correctly.

Different colours of Formica are also likely to have different
properties, the may even be variation batch to batch.

[Kate Powell]

Hi Matthew/ Barnaby,

Thanks for replying. Yes to everything you just said re checks Barnaby.

I was cutting 3mm laser ply fine yesterday but when I moved on to mirrored acrylic the settings that previously worked didn't, after a bit of playing around it seemed ok but it's having none of the Formica. I've spoken to a friend of mine and this happened to her laser cutter when, as you said Matthew, the mirrors need cleaning etc.

I'm happy to learn how to do that if it helps with the maintenance? But totally understand if not.

Cheers,

Kate

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[Matthew Daubney]

Mirrored acrylic might not cut as well, because of the mirroring effect :) Some of the laser power will be lost as it's reflected away.

The best people to speak about learning to maintain it would be Ryan/Barnaby/Simon. Haiving cleaned and sworn at many laser mirrors at Uni, I'm rather averse to it these days.  

I don't see it being a problem to having more people trained to do it though! I think cleaning out the pump system will also have a big effect on the available power.

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[Kate Powell]

Hi Matt,

I've cut and engraved mirrored acrylic successfully in the past...with a bit of experimentation! :-) I think the problem with the formica is that it's made to be heat resistant so it's a tricky customer but it's the most suitable product for what I'm doing, mainly because of the range of colours and how thin it is. I looked at laser laminates but they just aren't as pleasing.

K 

[Kate Powell]

Hi, I'm meeting with a guy who has the rock star version of laser cutters next Tuesday so I can get my Formica cut and when I described what was happening with the one at rLab he suggested that the tube may be going. But again if it's just a cleaning issue I'm happy to learn how to do it.

Kate

[Barnaby]

Richard, Ryan and I cleaned the cutter on Wednesday. The procedure is very simple but Ryan has some very cool optics cleaner that does a better job.
It got us back to a reliable 6mm/s cut on the 7.5mm stock. This is above the specification and general experience with 40W cutters, though still slightly down on when the bulb was brand new.

[Kate Powell]

Ahhh ok, maybe I'll have another go at the Formica again next week, thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

> On 15 Jun 2014, at 09:06, Barnaby <b...@zi.is> wrote:
>
> Richard, Ryan and I cleaned the cutter on Wednesday. The procedure is very simple but Ryan has some very cool optics cleaner that does a better job.
> It got us back to a reliable 6mm/s cut on the 7.5mm stock. This is above the specification and general experience with 40W cutters, though still slightly down on when the bulb was brand new.
>