# LASER CUTTING & ENGRAVING?



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Any one know about Laser cutting and engraving? I was wadering through a used equipment company's web site and saw this Laser cutter and engraver. The cutting area was 15 x 23 inches. If one were to cut out buildings like Colorado Model from steel. Could one use the engraver to engrave siding marks on the metal? Or maybe use the engraver to add details? 

The software on it is compatable with Corell Draw.

How wide is the Kerf of a lazer cutter?


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

John 
I would bet you are looking at a CO2 laser, and they will not cut metal of no kind, it takes a YAG laser to cut metal, Depending on the wattage it will do great with plastics and wood. Kerf I have two machines and one has .003 and the other has .005 kerf I can honestly say it is the most fun machine you would ever buy, Go to the building forum and look at the new station I built the detailed windows, stairways all the signs, chairs and tables, your mind is the limit with a laser. 
Dennis


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## Allegheny (Jan 2, 2008)

John,

It is not entirely true that a CO2 laser will not cut metal. CO2 lasers are quite commonly used to cut steel up to 1/2" thick, but in the 1,500-2,500 + watt range! You were probably looking at a more modest 30-100 watt engraver. This will easily cut most solid woods, most thin (aircraft) plywoods (depending on the glue used for laminations) and most plastics (acrylic, styrene - but NOT PVC - lasering PVC creates toxic and corrosive gases). Kern lasers out of the upper midwest claims to have a special focusing lens that allows a 60-100 watt laser to cut non-galvanized sheet steel to 16 gauge or so. NO laser will cut brass or bronze - for that you need either a plasma cutter or a high pressure water jet.


Brian


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

John 
Brian is right about the Co2 cutting steel, in fact I have been in contact with Kern lasers earlier this year about a machine to cut up to 1/8" thich mild steel, the price was around 160 grand, that made spending 20,000 to cut 1" on our second cnc plasma look more like my budget. 
What wattage was this laser and what brand is it. 
Dennis


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

The wattage was under 50 and it was some chineese brand. It was C02 Now that I have had a education on lasers I can look some what intelagently It was a thought. The price was about 3 grand. It would have been nice if it cut metal to make some Crane booms or gardrails maybe some trim for buildings. 
The plasmacutter looks more affordable. Any one Know the kerf of a plasma cutter?


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## Allegheny (Jan 2, 2008)

Dennis,

You may want to consider getting a high power laser used - try 



http://www.laserresale.com/

I have seen 2,000 watters on their website for $15-20K. You could mount this on a CNC gantry for relatively cheap money - certainly less than $160K

Brian


No, I don't have any affiliation with them, even though they're only about 40 miles from my home.


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

John 
The kerf on a plasma will very depending on the air cup being used and the thickness of material, for example, on 16 gage material the kerf could be as little as .030 with slower feed rate. In our business we run a 1 inch thick capacity machine, very seldom do we cut anything that thick. 95% of what we cut is 16 and 11 gauge, but with that size of machine you can really move rapidly, for us speed is an essential thing. We use a .080 cup on all our material thickness, from 16 gauge and up in thickness, the thicker the material the higher we turn the power and slower the feed rate. So a .080 cup gives a .080 kerf 
In case where extreme close tolerance is needed like in the case of circles, you just make offset in you circle a few thousanths to compisate for the kerf, 
Under normal steel fabrication we do on our machine we build, we work with a tolerance of 1/16 or .062 in construction, when all pieces are either welded or broke the extreme close tolerance is never noticed and could cause a lot of unneeded headaches. 
Dennis


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## HS Marking (Jan 10, 2018)

Are you looking for a laser that can engrave cut wood, acrylic, plastic, marble, leather, paper, fabric and Metal as well.


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Alleganey,

I am currently on PTo, and not at my office, but about a year ago I was researching cutting brass with a laser and ran across a company in Texas that claims to be Abe to accomplish this. I will try to remember to post the name when I get back on Tuesday.

Bob C.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

armorsmith said:


> Alleganey,
> 
> I am currently on PTo, and not at my office, but about a year ago I was researching cutting brass with a laser and ran across a company in Texas that claims to be Abe to accomplish this. I will try to remember to post the name when I get back on Tuesday.
> 
> Bob C.



That post is 8 years old...


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

HS Marking said:


> Are you looking for a laser that can engrave cut wood, acrylic, plastic, marble, leather, paper, fabric and Metal as well.


The simple answer is "Yes". All the materials you mention (except maybe Marble).

But within the budget of the hobbyist. The cheaper the better!

The maximum size should probably be long and narrow... along the lines of 16"x8", based on the size of the side of a RR car in the larger scales of G-gauge, that would be cut in one piece. Of course, bigger is better, but designs can be altered to do things in sections. And CO$T is the primary driving factor in what compromises one is forced to commit.

Personally, I have done some photo etching to cut out parts from thin (.015") brass and it turned out wonderfully, but was a pain to do, with many steps, some of which, if you did not do them well enough, you might not know it until other steps have been completed and the raw materials ruined.

Doing it at a onesy/twosy rate is not bad just for me, but too much of a pain to do so commercially and I think what I made would be something others might pay a small amount to obtain. And I have other ideas that I would like to try, but not with the tedium of photo etching. I think cutting them using a LASER would make it commercially feasible, but only if the machinery was cheap enough to not take years and years to recover the cost, and I know I won't get rich in this realm!

I have considered going to a commercial firm to make them on contract but I am skeptical of losing control of my design and being undercut in price by someone taking my design.

The LASER cutters I see for sale now that are 'hobby sized' (and priced) are not quite big enough nor powerful enough for what "I want" to do (and are still somewhat too expen$ive for most hobbyists to consider).

Do you, HS Marking, have some product in mind?


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

John,

Follow this thread to know what you would be getting into with a "budget" cutter. Professional cutters, such as the Epilog Helix that I use ($30K), don't require the chiller or some of the other stuff that Cliff went to.

http://largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/26583/laser-cutter-install-log


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

John,
The thread was resurrected before my post. I was making a general response to a prior poster stating you cannot laser cut brass. I was under the same assumption until researching something for work. I think it is always good to update available technology when possible.
Bob C.


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

Somebody talked about having one of the Chinese laser cutters on here a while ago, maybe a couple of years ago. I found them on fleabay and since have had one on my watch list but never jumped. The capability and options would make for great possibilities for modeling creativity but not only does one buy the cutter, one must buy the software to program the cutter, common drawing software, but then also need the time to learn the software. Cutter does not include a package of spare time. Would think they could spare an extra Chinese citizen to come and do chores so the buyer would have time to fiddle with the thing. Hope to be caught up on a few things by the time I am 100, but the technology may be even more advanced then, squirt your model out of a cell phone or an Instant Pot.

Doug


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

> Hope to be caught up on a few things by the time I am 100, but the technology may be even more advanced then, squirt your model out of a cell phone or an Instant Pot.


More likely you'll run the app that talks to your brain directly and lets you run your own (virtual) train on your imaginary layout.


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