Laser cutting 10mm acrylic?

[camhguh]

No I can't either and use polishing compounds to finish the acrylic I work with. Most of the folks I know who get good flame polish on acrylic are using one of two systems. The first feeds the acrylic through a machine that puts a focused flame along the edge and in a very controlled method keeps any surface or edge melting/burning from happening; the second uses A fire resistant lined edge jig that allows you to use a hand held unit to control where the flame is hitting (thereby stopping over melt or burn) and with practice they say you can get a very high quality finish that way. I can afford the equipment to do the first way and have not looked seriously in the other.

Depending on your machining I would look at doing a final pass with as large a end mill as you can use in the single flue type and that does tend to give a very high quality finish I have found. Just remember to only use Cast or it will go gooey on you every time and cost you tools and material (money). If you are using air with vacuum up pull at the milling point you would be surprised at the cutting you can do at speed. I have done DOC from .3 mm for engravings to 3 mm passes for general milling and that is without good air cooling. Just getting the feeds and speeds right with tool type can give you a lot to work with. I am working on adding air cooling as I have clients that want me working in Brass, ABS and one who is asking when I can cut 306 or 316 (not to crazy on that idea).

Hope that helps.

Michael

Yes it does indeed, thanks for the tip re single flute tooling, we have been using three and four fluted cutting bits and the finish has been dissapointing so far.

We found out about using cast acrylic the hard way! Didnt realise there was any difference to begin with but we know now! lol

[John S]

Hugh,
Picture as promised, actually looks better in real life, more polished but the striations are still there. The other bit is 3mm and this cuts OK.
I'd imagine that 8mm will cut OK without marks but not tried it because i don't have any.




Michael makes a good point over cast and extruded but to be honest I don't know what this material is? just some kicking about.

Laser is an A3 unit and cost 3K but you can get some from China for about 1.5K

I bought from the UK, HPC laser as I wanted UK support.

Perfectly willing to run some test pieces for you.

[camhguh]

Hugh,
Picture as promised, actually looks better in real life, more polished but the striations are still there. The other bit is 3mm and this cuts OK.
I'd imagine that 8mm will cut OK without marks but not tried it because i don't have any.




Michael makes a good point over cast and extruded but to be honest I don't know what this material is? just some kicking about.

Laser is an A3 unit and cost 3K but you can get some from China for about 1.5K

I bought from the UK, HPC laser as I wanted UK support.

Perfectly willing to run some test pieces for you.

Cheers John!

That gives us something to go on for comparison purposes.

If its ok with you and you have the time, we would like to arrange with you to see the unit in action so that we can get a proper understanding of whats involved in running a laser unit.

Never seen one before (except ebay pics) let alone used one!

[John S]

No problem Hugh.
Can pick you up as before, just let me know.

They are very very easy to use, easier than a CNC mill, no tooling worries for a start. You select either engrave or cut and the speed and power and that's basically it.
One hours training is virtually all you need, after that it's a self taught learning curve of the settings for different materials but easy enough to get a library sheet printed out.

[camhguh]

No problem Hugh.
Can pick you up as before, just let me know.

They are very very easy to use, easier than a CNC mill, no tooling worries for a start. You select either engrave or cut and the speed and power and that's basically it.
One hours training is virtually all you need, after that it's a self taught learning curve of the settings for different materials but easy enough to get a library sheet printed out.

Thats exactly what we need John....the simpler the better.... :)

Will be in contact to arrange time/date

Thanks once again!