Tenson
14-10-2014, 08:19 PM
I currently have a standard CNC mill but I find one of the most time consuming and prohibitive things is fixing the material down. I often cut small parts that need to be really accurate, have cut-outs and at the same time can not have additional holes to affix them with screws. So I use a vacuum table mostly, but there is always the problem of maintaining a good vacuum and needing to 'onion skin' parts (extra finishing work) and some parts can't even be onion skinned.
So.. I am wondering about what lasers can do? I don't know much about this topic, but I do know they don't physically put force on the material so fixing is not too difficult. Can they only cut profiles, or can they control depth of cut accurately? For example if I wanted to make a small speaker side panel can a laser cut 2mm width slots to a depth of 6mm in a 9mm sheet of plywood? Can we create a area clear on acrylic accurately measuring -2mm depth for another part to sit in?
I know a lot depends on specifics of what I want to do and the material etc.. but I just want to get an idea for what can be done if I were to fix a laser on my CNC mill in place of the spindle?
So.. I am wondering about what lasers can do? I don't know much about this topic, but I do know they don't physically put force on the material so fixing is not too difficult. Can they only cut profiles, or can they control depth of cut accurately? For example if I wanted to make a small speaker side panel can a laser cut 2mm width slots to a depth of 6mm in a 9mm sheet of plywood? Can we create a area clear on acrylic accurately measuring -2mm depth for another part to sit in?
I know a lot depends on specifics of what I want to do and the material etc.. but I just want to get an idea for what can be done if I were to fix a laser on my CNC mill in place of the spindle?