How To Laser Cut Paper At Home
A commonly asked question I hear is "Tin you light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cut paper without burning it?" With a petty scrap of preparation and the right settings, information technology is possible to get your light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cut paper without whatsoever fire marks. Resulting in a great, clean, scorch-free light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutting on most types of paper and fifty-fifty cardboard stock.
So, how do you get your laser cutting paper without burning it? Get the basics right by making sure your mirrors and lens are clean and correctly focussed. Apply the shortest focal length lens you have (1.5~2.5″) and utilize as much air assist as you tin without disturbing the paper. Power should be low ten~17% and speed around twenty~30mm/s depending on the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation used.
These settings will result in your laser cutting paper scorch complimentary. Yous volition need to do some additional testing to get the optimum results for your item laser machine. I've put together some tips to make the chore easier for all of y'all card makers out there.
Here'south What Nosotros Will Cover:
Laser Cut Newspaper for a Wedding Invite
Optimizing The Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation Cutting Paper Settings
Everyone's laser machine is dissimilar, there volition be differences in power output at different levels even betwixt the aforementioned models. So it is best you do some preparation and testing to determine the all-time results for your own particular motorcar.
Getting the correct focus altitude:
This is easily the most important factor in attaining a clean light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cut with paper. An error of as little equally 1mm can brand a huge difference in your results, this becomes more acute when using a shorter focal length lens. Consider building yourself a focus ramp to accurately determine the right focal position for each lens you employ.
Levelling the work bed:
If your work bed is not level, and so your focus volition be out across the job, which can result in areas where the cutting thickness (kerf) is thicker or even areas where the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation has failed to fully cut through. This becomes more of import the larger the sheet size used.
Housekeeping:
Ensure your mirrors and lens are make clean before starting the testing. While mirrors will need checking on a weekly ground, you should check and clean your lens each time yous use the automobile.
Apartment fabric:
Unfortunately paper and card accept a trend to scroll or bow, so it is necessary to brand sure that you continue the cloth perfectly apartment during cut. If you are cutting on a honeycomb bed, you can use magnets to concord the paper in place. If yous are doing high volume production runs, it may be worth edifice a pin table or jig to hold the paper in place.
- I generally employ a pin table and place 9mm bore neodymium magnets on the corner pins to hold the paper in position.
- Please notation that if yous are cutting on a honeycomb bed, at that place is a significant hazard of laser flashback marking the rear of the paper. In many cases, this may not be of import as the finished product may but be viewed from the height surface. It's not easy to use stand-offs on flexible materials such as paper, then your best solution is to place the newspaper onto a sacrificial sheet of card.
Air Help:
It is desirable to have your air assist set up high in order to cool the cut zone, but information technology shouldn't be too high as information technology volition blow fragments of paper back onto the surface, potentially affecting the cutting in unlike areas.
Skillful fume extraction will terminate debris from falling dorsum onto the surface of the newspaper. Ideally, you should have a flow of air beyond the surface of the paper taking away the smoke as soon every bit it is generated. Information technology is worthwhile masking off unused areas of the piece of work bed to maximise this airflow.
Power and speed settings:
Typically jobs involving laser cutting paper tend to be on small sail sizes and have intricate sections. Trying to run at high speed and loftier power may work for large regular shapes equally the laser has a chance to accelerate up to the specified speed. However, when you are looking at intricate work where the laser head is changing management constantly, you lot will never attain the specified speed due to the acceleration limits on the machine. This results in too much laser energy beingness used on the material and why you get the burning.
Mixing Settings According to Application
I typically have two settings for when I'yard cutting paper:
- Low speed / low power for intricate work
- Speed: 30mm/s | Power Max/Min: 11.v%/10% (approx. 9W)
- High Speed / College Ability for the outer border or large regular objects
- Speed: 150mm/due south | Power Max/Min: 18%/15% (approx. 18W)
Your testing will be to determine suitable high speed / high power settings and will involve cutting out squares to determine the power settings to achieve the fastest cut possible without there being any take chances of burning. I would suggest yous limit the squares to 20mm (0.8″) in size every bit any larger could give skewed results as the head may never accomplish the speed in an actual job.
In one case yous take a suitable high speed / high ability setting it is worth checking the fourth dimension taken to cut the test foursquare so repeating the chore at a slightly slower speed. If the time taken is the same at the slower speed, it shows that the laser does not actually accomplish the specified speed during the job. Subtract the speed in steps to discover the point where the job starts getting slower to cut. This is important because if you run a chore with a run longer than 20mm yous run the take chances of the laser not cut all the manner through.
You can so beginning your trials for the depression speed / low power settings at 50% of the college settings and test using a vii.5mm (0.3″) foursquare.
Unfortunately, it'southward not possible to give you lot exact settings as it totally depends on the peculiarities of your laser motorcar.
Relieve the settings in your software package if this is bachelor, otherwise set a reference folder to store all your results for piece of cake referral.
Prepare the laser artwork:
When setting upwards a chore that has a combination of intricate work and long runs, you need to group all the intricate objects nether the depression settings and the long runs under the high settings. Simply ensure the edge is the last thing cut.
Frequency settings:
There are two main technologies for CO2 laser cutting machines, the glass DC CO2 laser tube and the RF "Metal" CO2 tube.
- Glass DC Co2 Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation tube: When cutting paper yous desire to exist running the laser tube in its pre-ionisation stage, typically found between 9~17% power, although this does vary across tubes. It is characterised past a "hissing" noise during the cut process.
- RF Metal CO2 tube: In this type of tube it is possible to vary the frequency and settings of 500~1200Hz are suggested for cutting paper.
What Can Be Achieved By Using A Laser To Cut Paper?
Check out this smashing Christmas Carte du jour by my good friend Russ Sadler to come across the item that tin be obtained by light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutting newspaper.
Determination On Getting Your Laser Cutting Newspaper Without Burning
And then that'due south my advice on how to light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cut paper without burning. At that place are a number of central areas that will need to exist covered, some of which are specific to your laser motorcar, but none of them are particularly hard. Once sorted, you lot will take your ain repeatable settings for cutting paper with your laser without having any burn marks.
How Do Yous Laser Cut Corrugated Cardboard?
So, how practice y'all light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutting corrugated cardboard? You may think that cutting corrugated card is very similar to cutting newspaper or unmarried layer cardboard and you just demand more ability considering it is thicker. Consider the structure of corrugated cardboard. Two, iii or fifty-fifty four apartment layers or liners, each separated and joined by a wavy or corrugated layer called the fluting. The fluting traps smoke betwixt the layers when laser cut, dispersing the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beam and resulting in lower axle penetration into the paper-thin. The usual reaction is to either increase the power or subtract the speed, but all this results in is a burned edge and if you are not conscientious, the production catching fire.
I Use "Dot Mode" as my preferred solution, rather than straightforward cutting. Dot Manner tin can have different names across unlike software platforms, but it is substantially pulsing the laser instead of having a continuous ability output from the laser tube. Pulsing the laser means that you tin use a loftier ability to dial through the corrugated paper-thin only not applying information technology long enough to affect the surrounding cloth.
You need to adjust four parameters; speed, dot time, dot length and dot interval. Settings will once more vary depending on your item light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, but a proficient starting point is:
- Dot Time = 0.1s
- Speed = 30mm/due south
- Dot Interval = 0.07mm
- Dot Length = 0.1mm
You are aiming to become your 20mm (0.8″) test square to fall out with little or no charring on the edges. Be careful during your trials as information technology is piece of cake to accidentally grab fire to the cardboard.
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Last updated August 26, 2021
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