Anybody have experience with cutting wood with laser engraving machine?
Is it viable or should I just get 3d printer?
Is there a lot of existing models for parts or would I need to learn to use cad software?
Anybody have experience with cutting wood with laser engraving machine? Is it viable or should I just get 3d printer?
You're better off with a CO2 laser cutter like the K40 if you care about cutting power.
999 is too much for me but there seems to be co2 laser models for cheaper.
Maybe if I spot a pre-owned one I might buy it.
> Anybody have experience with cutting wood with laser engraving machine?
Yes, with the cheap ones it’s a poor experience unless you’re doing thin veneers like marquetry or balsa for model ships or airplanes. It cuts triplex okay but only so thin that you wouldn’t even make gears out of it. Basically all it’s good for is artsy stuff.
Second this anon, a proper k40 with some mods gives you the capacity of a $2-3k machine for $1k, the cheap machines, you get what you pay for.
Have been using the $200 2418 with the cnc spindle as well, that will do for electronics cases. I cut PMMA sheet and beechwood with it at 0.4mm doc and 400mm/s. Not fast, noisy as hell but it’s accurate.
But still should have gotten the $600 all metal 3040 in hindsight as they’re just so much more value for money.
Well I ended up ordering this
https://ortur.net/collections/laser-engraving-machine/products/aufero-laser1-best-portable-laser-engraver
If it proves to be just a toy I can give it to my nephew as a gift
The trick to cutting stuff with hobby lasers is air assist. Basically anything that pumps air through a nozzle aimed at the focal point. People use aquarium pumps, airbrush compressors, whatever works. That said, I cut 3mm plywood just fine with a USB fan blowing on the work piece. Takes more time but I'm lazy and not in a particular hurry.
>If it proves to be just a toy I can give it to my nephew as a gift
Class 4 lasers are extremely dangerous. How old/responsible is your nephew?
Almost 9, he's on the AB honor roll tho
Would you let him handle firearms?
>Is it viable or should I just get 3d printer?
I think a laser cutter has much more real world application. Most youtubers who have a 3d printer don’t know what to do with it, and they usually just make plastic happy meal toys. The only real application for 3d printing is making guns, but the ATF will kill your dog.
Also with a laser cutter you can select from a variety of different materials, as opposed to the cheap looking plastic filament.
He’s probably gonna end up making toxic gas or setting wood on fire. Maybe double check every time before he uses it.
What are you wanting to make?
Custom cases for electronics and maybe some utility pieces, that's why I'm also considering 3d printer.
I'm thinking that I could just work plywood by hand but I'm kind of bad at crafts and the small cnc machines are not that expensive (if the cheap ones can cut wood).
But if there are existing designs online which I could modify if needed and that I could just use with the machine to create necessary parts, I think it would be worthy investment.
I think I might want one just for the engraving to use for making name plates.
In that case I'd probably get a 3d printer. I've found laser cut cases to be pretty underwhelming, because the joints always look ugly and gluing things together kinda sucks too.
Engraving is a better use case for sure but to be honest you'd probably get bored of sticking name plates on everything.
Absolutely go for 3d printer for cost and ease of use for cases.
Depends on what you are cutting or doing with it.
If you are planning to cut sheets of material for assembly, you really need a CO2 laser. It will cut quicker and in fewer or just one pass.
If you want to engrave, diodes actually tend to have smaller laser spot sizes and therefore better resolution. They are almost universally slower than CO2 lasers, so in a production environment you still want a CO2 laser.
Where the finest kerf is concerned a diode is finer. That can help in some cases. Still it's easier to just offset you vectors and make tighter fitting parts more quickly.
Cutting on a diode is not a great process. If you have one of the better units- which isn't always obvious as the chinese lie about wattage- you can handle up to about 3/8" wood. But you need a big dick one for that. I have a jtech 24 which was the top dog for consumer/prosumer diodes although now 48s are coming out of China. Cutting thicker wood takes more passes and tends to char like crazy, start small fires, and takes forever. In the end, unless it's very thin sheet goods a mechanical cutter is the best choice by far.
If you want to just put your name on stuff, either works. I use my jtech 24 on my cnc machine so it is complementary. It is far from the highest value choice but it fits my particular use case very well.
>If you have one of the better units- which isn't always obvious as the chinese lie about wattage- you can handle up to about 3/8" wood.
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Yes, you can cut deeper, but his ~1/2 inch board took 22 passes, and that's one of the highest powered diodes on the market.
For reference, this jigsaw coaster was 3/8 hardwood and using my 24w laser (which at the time was one of the best diodes) I think I used 6 passes at 12 IPM. Some wood also cuts waaaay better than others. Plywood can actually be somewhat more troublesome than similarly sized solid wood unless it's made with a glue meant for lasering. Softer woods tend to be easier. Maple and ash are rather difficult. Darker woods tend to be easier.
The engraving in comparison is quite fast (although a CO2 would run faster, I normally don't run my cnc faster than 200IPM and I'm sure it's never getting up to that speed on such small pieces even with acceleration and jerk ramped up)
It is nice for very intricate gears and small parts though and is worth the time it takes.
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> 20+ passes and scorched as hell
Just use a router at that point
What if you want to do inlays with offsets?
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Use a v bit and do it in a fraction of the time with a zank inlay
You're seriously reaching, and I actually make and sell stuff with diode lasers. It's a niche tool and the general applicability of them is low when you step outside of those niches.
>a zank inlay
Doesn't work with vertical-sided inset inlays like what was demonstrated in the video. And of course it's a niche. That was never under contention. What was is the cutting capacity of diode lasers (there are in fact ones with considerably greater depth of cut than 3/8") and the ability of lasers to cut designs that routers can't (due to their much thinner kerf).
If your example of that video is a guy posting scorched wood after 20+ passes, no, it is not a viable cutting tool.
You can dimension lumber with a scroll saw, that doesn't make it an appropriate tool to do it with.
You also specified nothing about vertical sides, as if that matters. A v carved inlay is generally better for having more glue surface anyway.
When you start cutting wood that thick with a laser, especially with that many passes, you also up the risk of fire substantially.
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A tool that takes that long to cut, with an increased risk of flare up, is even less useful. You're even more likely to need to walk away from it.
While there is no reason a diode laser can't be as powerful as a CO2 (the newer crop are as powerful as k40s and the like) and they have way more userfriendliness in terms of diode life and heat management, there is a really good reason why people don't generally cut thick wood with lasers.
Thin stuff, sure, knock yourself out.