Can You cut 10mm acrylic on a 80W C02 Laser!!!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ม.ค. 2023
- In this one I did some testing to see what settings would cut through 10mm acrylic ended up doing it in 1 pass @ 2mm/sec 80% power and again @ 5mm/sec 50% power with 2 passes both turned out good however i think the 1 pass left a cleaner edge!! As always feel free to give and tips or feedback in the comments & Thanks for watching, cheers Matt
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Hi Matt
Acrylic is a unique material in that it is the only onrethat cuts by change of state rather than change of chemisrty. In the same way that H2O exists in 3 main states, solid liquid and vapour, so does acrylic. Its solid at room temprature but at 160C it changes to liquid and at 200C it boils and vaporizes just like water.. It take a lot of energy to change material from one state to another (look how long it takes to boil a pan dry) whereas set fire to a piece of paper and the chemical reaction happens quickly. Cutting (more accurately ...evaporating) acrylic will always be a slow process and in comparison , for example, you can cut wood at more than twice the speed. When cutting acylic OBSERVATION is most important.. Light travels in straight lines and it is light energy that is eveporating the acrylic. Watch your cuts and observe how the bottom of the cut drags behind the beam entry point. If light travels in straight lines, how can this be possible?. No you are not defying the laws of physics, it means you are no longer evaporating the "dragging" part of the cut that is not upright.with the laser beam. Instead, you are evaporating the curved bit with hot gasand so it is totally out of control and is the cause of your frilly cut on the bottom edge. It is a bad idea to do two cuts, Look at the turbulent gas flow and jagged bottom to the first cut along with the drag by running faster.. take a look at this short video th-cam.com/video/Ay0xFzhvbyI/w-d-xo.html You should ideally try for a single pass cut even if it is slow I have a tube with similar power to you and I can cut 20mm acrylic with a 63.5mm lens at 1mm/s
To summerize. If the beam drags then the speed is too fast. A 4" lens may not give you the gain everyone believes. The simple rule for cutting is "the greater the light intensity the faster damage will happen". Degrade the intensity with a longer focal length lens and you may cut deeper but it will be at the expense of cutting speed... Try it for yourself.
I am reading this comment with your voice in my head 😊
Waiting for a new video! Thanks for all these helpful videos!
Hi Markuss, thanks I’ll be posting new one very soon, iv been working away but will be back at it soon, thanks for watching 👍🏽
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Grant, thanks for watching cheers, Matt
This a nice belt laser machine, and now we have a screw laser machine, that can cut 30mm acrylic with smooth and bright edges
Hi Matt, great video & happy to have discovered your channel as I've just picked up a similar machine to play around with at the end of the year.
Have you considered changing to a lens with a different focal length? From what I gather getting a longer focal distance will give a longer distance that the beam will be 'in focus' meaning you should be able to cut thicker material without needing to run at 80% power. But that means that you lose detail on engraving and thinner cuts, so maybe we change out the lens when we need to cut thick stuff, leave it as is for everyday use. Totally don't know if I'm barking up the wrong tree or not, but could be worth checking out.
Cheers!
Hi 👋🏽 thanks mate and yeh could definitely swap to a 4” lense to cut thicker material but I just wanted to see what thickness the standard 2” lense could do with the acrylic I know a guy that has the 100w machine and with a 4” lense is cutting though 18-25mm board so that’s definitely the go if your wanting to do thicker stuff, and as you said having it there to swap out between the 2 would be ideal
Thanks for watching mate 🤙🏽
Cheers, Matt
10 years ago I used to cut 10mm on a 30watt co2!
Hi Richard, was that with several passes, when I purchased this machine I was told it could do up to 10-12mm materials I’m yet to try a thicker plywood or mdf I’d assume they would be a lot harder and produce a really burnt Edge as I’m sure they would require several passes cheers, Matt
The motor of your machine is it a stepper motor or a servo motor? I’m wondering if it makes any difference when cutting acrylics. Thanks for your video.
Great test to show the abilities of the machine. One question. The edges don't seem to be perpendicular (90 degrees) are they?
Thanks mate, yeh the Kerf was out very slightly on this I think the thicker the material the more that runs out it’s not noticeable on anything thinner than this 👍🏽 thanks for watching
Cheers, Matt
Hey, love your videos. I am wanting to get once of these machines but couldn't find much about them, finding your videos has out me at ease. I am just wondering why do you place the acrylic on top of those silver rings rather than just putting it straight on the honeycomb base?
Hi Talara, for this video I just did it on the honeycomb as I was only testing to see what thickness it can cut also with acrylic the flashback is not so bad it doesn’t leave a burnt mark like it does on wood/timber but if you wanted a perfect finish on the back then I’d still suggest raising it off the bed but just for testing purposes I don’t worry to much as it just ends up in the bin 😊 thanks so much for watching. Cheers Matt
@@woodendayz thanks so much Matt! Also what's the thickest wood you've been able to cut on this machine?
Iv only done up to 9mm plywood and also mdf so far and that’s both in 1 pass but that’s a good question I’ll do some testing and put up a video in the next few days, I’m sure it could do more but once you get into several passes it can burn up the edges pretty good. 😊
@@woodendayz thanks Matt! That would be awesome if you could do a video!
hello :)
I have 5 questions, if you don't mind:
1: how small are the smalles holes or rectangles that you can cut out?
2: how thin are the cuts in PMMA?
3: is it possible to, for example, "etch" 1mm deep into thicker PMMA? (for example make sag holes/rectangles that remove 1mm from a 3mm PMMA plate without cutting through?
4: making PMMA areas "blind" is the same as engraving? can you vary the percentage of the mattified area?
5: I know there are small desktop plotters for this, but can you cut plastic foil (the colored foils on paper that you can place on PMMA plates) the same way with the laser?
Thanks for a quick reply and with best regards!
Hi, yes you can cut acrylic very small just a few mm circle or rectangle and yes you can etch/engrave 1mm on some 3mm and not cut through it all depends on your speed and power settings that you use but you can engrave very light or very deep,
The cuts are extremely thin if you were to cut out a circle then you can push it back in with almost no gap at all it’s very precise when cut by the laser 😊
I’m not sure about cutting foil or paper as iv not tryed that before sorry and yes you can vary the percentage of the engraving by selecting a different power setting and adding that to a specific layer in Lightburn
@@woodendayz thanks! :)
Great info. I am looking at an upgrade to my laser capability. I currently only have a 7.5w diode laser on my CNC Router. All its good for is engraving my logo on the back of my jobs. I see VEVOR have a 100w unit at a reasonable price. I was thinking one of the high powered Diode lasers that are on the market. But the price point on the VEVOR 100w seems like a good deal. Maybe to good. How have you found VEVOR to deal with?
Hi, my machine has been flawless to date so iv had no contact with vevor since iv purchased the machine, the purchase was quick and easy I think I purchased it on a Sunday and it was at my door by Thursday iv had to make minor adjustment as far as the bed being level and adding some extra hose clamps to the water lines but all in all it’s been hassle free machine so far 😊 thanks for watching, cheers Matt
@@woodendayz Thanks for that. The CNC Router thing I have been doing for few years. The Laser will be something new.
Nice man! Can’t you just do several passes to get a cut, or does that risk melting the acrylic or a fire?
Hey josh! Yeh you definitely could but I found that it gives a much nicer Edge with just the 1 pass several seemed to make the edges cloudy where as 1 pass had the same clear look through the thickness of the acrylic,
Thanks for watching mate 🤙🏽
Is your air assist turning on when you start? Acrylic cuts cleaner with very little blow...
Yeh it is, it’s set to 15psi I’ll have to try it without and see the difference, thanks for the tip cheers. Matt
@@woodendayz I have my air almost turned off, otherwise you risk it flaming up
try lowering your focal point 2 - 3 mm
Hi,sir! Nice video. Can You cut 6 mm or ticker plywood or MDF with this laser?
Hi, thank you yes defiantly, iv cut both plywood and mdf up to 9mm with this machine all 1 pass and very easily, thanks for watching cheers, Matt!
Hello. I’m pretty new to this. I have a question: where did you focus the beam, on the surface or closer? (Somewhat in the material)? Because 10mm is pretty thick
Hey mate, to find your focal point you need to do a ramp test check out this video to find yours!
RAMP Test How to find your focal length!!!
th-cam.com/video/p3LldFDL5CM/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for watching cheers Matt!
@@woodendayz Thank you. We had a similar unit at my work place (90W), which broke, and got swapped out with onether one, this one has a 150W laser. I experimented a bit, it can cut through 10mm plexi with speed 5 and power ~50% easily
Hi mate, I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and recently I bought vevor 100w co2 machine. How your laser going. I’m having really hard time with it. Parameters are all screwed up. Have you faced any similar issues yet? Thanks
Hey mate, thanks for watching! And congrats on the new machine 👍🏽 to be honest mine has been Awsome I haven’t had any major issues apart from my own mistake of trying to do an alignment without research 🙃 once I sorted that it’s been great.
What issues are you having are you using Lightburn or RDworks? And Is it the 6442 ruida controller like mine?
@@woodendayz yes same controller, I’m using lightburn. My x axis only travelling to the one side , opposite to home and hitting the corner, hence the display shows 10000mm (XY). Do you know any repairer in Melbourne?
Hmmm that’s a tough one I’m not too sure what that could be have your tryed to reset the vendor settings? And I’m in brisbane so unfortunately I don’t know of anyone in Melbourne sorry I couldn’t be more help.
80mm at 2mm a sec I bet the cut perspex is really warm LOL
Yeh defiantly lol
Hi, what’s this machine called?
Hi this is a vevor 80w C02 laser machine, 😊 thanks for watching
Cheers, Matt
how about cutting 20mm plywood, to shows us its possible, as the manufacturer claims?
Hey mate, I doubt this machine would cut 20mm with a 2” lense may be possible with a 4” lense but I will have a go at cutting some thicker material to see if it can cut it and post the results 😊 cheers Matt
@@woodendayz
thanks.
looking forward to see them.
regards.
You talk about only 10mm cutting with 80watt laser long time bfore i cutt 20mm with the help of 80watt laser in 1 pass
That’s impressive 20mm I found once I slowed it down to try get the deeper it it started to burn/melt the top of the acrylic were you using a standard lense?
@@woodendayz6.8 focal length glass lens