Last weekend I taught my laser how to burn leather.
I upgraded it again a while back to a full NEJE40w. It gave me the power I’ve been looking for to cut through a few more materials without going all the way to a CO2 laser.
I had to do some research on how to finish the leather. Surprisingly, all you do is clean it with orange-stuff hand cleaner and then condition it with some saddle soap.
Here’s what I cut. I haven’t put saddle soap on it yet.
My wife has been doing some leather working and Is asking about cutting out patterns with the laser.
Mind if I ask what the heaviest weight leather is that you have been able to cut and if you think the recent upgrade to the more powerful laser was necessary to cut it well?
I’m cutting the thickest stuff sold at Michael’s. Maybe 1/8" thick?
Stronger laser is probably not needed. it’d just take more passes with a weaker laser. I’m using air assist.
Thanks for the info, how many passes did it take you to cut out the circle with your neje40W?
2-ish… 3 would probably be better, but I got about 95% full cut with 2. There were a few spots that didn’t cut all the way through and I finished the cut with an xacto knife. If I used 3 cuts, then most of the cut would have hit my board under the leather.
I could also try slowing down the cut just a tad more to get the last of it.
Sounds like it’s worth getting the more powerful laser if my wife wants to cut leather with it regularly.
Thanks for the help!
Edit:
I noticed that Amazon doesn’t sell the 40w model. Did you buy it directly from their website, or somewhere else?
I got it from Ali express.
It’s not cheap, but it was still cheaper than a co2.
I’ve gotten the neje40w as well! It frigthens me, I keep it locked down. I’m glad to see people handling it with success, you better watch out - I’m quite sure that I’ll bother you when the day comes 
yeah $280 is certainly a pretty penny, i’m just concerned that it can only run for 30min at full power. or at least if you run it for more than 30min at full power it could be damaged and voids the warranty.
have you had any concerns with running it for to long? or noticed and degradation in the laser power?
I don’t run it at 100% for 30 minutes.
I run at 90-95% power and just slow down my cut speed. I also have a desk fan that blows across the laser engraver when it’s running, so I have active air cooling going across the cooling fins.
My wife bought some cutting boards for me to burn.
The rectangle went well.
The circle had too high of a lip. I thought I had enough clearance, but I didn’t. If you look close, you can see how the outline doesn’t line up with the infill.
It gives it the individual hand made look. Beside that they are great love the design and look. There are individual machin assisted creations
Garbage pail kids!!!
If you didn’t tell me it was misaligned I would think it was an effect, looks good.
I ended up burning two more for the event. We’ll keep this one for ourselves.
