So I’ve had a 2.5W laser set up and running on my MPCNC for a while now, just a simple PWM/TTL laser, and it works amazingly for engraving stuff. I’m curious though if there’s anything special that would need to do to cut material with my laser other than just doing multiple passes and lowering the laser tiny bits on each pass. Would be really awesome if I was able to use this to cut stuff out of 3-4mm thick wood and even acrylic would be nice.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Fitting an air pump to blow over the laser spot will help the most. If the wood is soft enough you should be able to cut 3mm in about 6 passes, if the wood is harder you may not get through at all. Acrylic will be a pain to cut, some colours will cut, some wont, some cuts may be ok some will just melt the acrylic - it depends on the acrylic… cast is better than extruded. Experimentation is the only way to find out what your setup will produce.
Is there any other software to use for cutting specifically? I’ve been using it in Vectric Aspire and just have it set as a “endmill” but with laser specs for diameter and speed. Works great for engraving but I’m either going to fast at 2in/min or not lowering the laser enough with each pass because it’s not even cutting through 1/16 inch soft laminate wood. It is marking on the spoil board and the backside of the wood though so seems it’s at least getting somewhat close, but it’s not consistent and definitely not cut through just marked in a few spots
2 inches a minute. I think you need to increase the speed and increase the passes!! I think from memory I use 2000mm/min…that’s about 4 times your speed
You can create a new ‘endmill’, call it “Laser” and set whatever spindle speed (for power) and feed rate you like (but I guess you know that). You can also copy and modify a post processor to adapt your gcode to suit your laser operation, for example use M4 instead of M3. you could also use LightBurn software, which is specifically for laser work.
If you are marking the spoil board you are nearly there, just give it a few more passes, it is not going to be as precise as a mill or router in terms of depth because the workpiece will be of uneven density/moisture/etc.