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Metal Business Cards

GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me

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mikey-Oh

mikey-Oh

New Member
Esmae said:
You'll really struggle with aluminium but you will cut mild steel. You need to make it pierce the metal before you can proceed with cutting. this will be a few seconds in one spot with the laser at full power, then you may proceed to vaporise the molten metal at a steady rate (100watt very steady) you will need air assist (or cutting gas). try it with .8mm mild
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Ok, my air assist is just a jet of air to snuff out the flaming acrylic. I'll check into what a cutting gas setup'll run. Doubt I'll go for it, but I learned the ancient art of acid etch in college...
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
I have a 80 Watt Trotec Speedy 300 at my shop, If you can get it to cut through even 1mm thick aluminum or steel, I will give you the machine. You can set it to full power and 10,000 passes and it will barley leave a mark.

The trotec dealer has a speedy 500 machine it's 250 watts, they had a MAJOR smartphone manufacturer contact them about buying a machine strictly for cutting parts out of thin aluminum, they told them it was the wrong machine for the job.

In summary, I think you are mistaken.

Esmae said:
What is so out of context?

100 watt CO2 laser will cut metal. Epilog, universal, trotec all sell 100 watt lasers.

So what is out of context, you said a CO2 laser won't cut metal because of (wait for it) the wavelength :ROFLMAO:, stop talking to salesmen and start talking to techs, that way you can wade through the crap to the truth. Then you might know what you are dribbling about.

Sorry for my rudeness but you seriously are an ignoramus, soak up a little knowledge instead of arguing
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E

Esmae

New Member
watsons signs said:
I have a 80 Watt Trotec Speedy 300 at my shop, If you can get it to cut through even 1mm thick aluminum or steel, I will give you the machine. You can set it to full power and 10,000 passes and it will barley leave a mark.

The trotec dealer has a speedy 500 machine it's 250 watts, they had a MAJOR smartphone manufacturer contact them about buying a machine strictly for cutting parts out of thin aluminum, they told them it was the wrong machine for the job.

In summary, I think you are mistaken.
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I've been talking about mild steel and stainless steel. Aluminium is a different matter. It would cut it, but slowly and with difficulty, they probably advised him to go to a more metal cutting type setup like a 1kw system.

As for your 80 watt speedy, i have said all along you would need at least 100 watts (you could possibly do it with an 80) and you have to do it in a single pass, with some sort of air or gas assist.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Esmae said:
I've been talking about mild steel and stainless steel. Aluminium is a different matter. It would cut it, but slowly and with difficulty, they probably advised him to go to a more metal cutting type setup like a 1kw system.

As for your 80 watt speedy, i have said all along you would need at least 100 watts (you could possibly do it with an 80) and you have to do it in a single pass, with some sort of air or gas assist.
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I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree on this, all I know is that in my ~9 years of working with and owning laser engravers I have never personally known anyone in person or online who has been able to cut metal with a standard laser engraver. perhaps if the machine was modified for a specific purpose, but an out of the box Trotec, Universal or Epilog will not do it.

Just my $0.02
 
E

Esmae

New Member
watsons signs said:
I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree on this, all I know is that in my ~9 years of working with and owning laser engravers I have never personally known anyone in person or online who has been able to cut metal with a standard laser engraver. perhaps if the machine was modified for a specific purpose, but an out of the box Trotec, Universal or Epilog will not do it.

Just my $0.02
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I agree with you, out of the box (Trotec, Universal or Epilog) probably not because you need assist gas or compressed air and the right lens.

But, this whole initial argument was based on claims that a small CO2 laser will not cut metal. Which in fact it will.
 
V

V-ENGRAVE

New Member
Wow, I own Universal laser for 10 years now and how I wish it would cut even 0.010 thick stainless. Universal has just released CO2 Fiber combo laser and my first question to dealer was.....Will it cut metal? ...... Answer "NOOOOOO"!!!
On this one I am with CES020 and Watson sign.
 
E

Esmae

New Member
V-ENGRAVE said:
Wow, I own Universal laser for 10 years now and how I wish it would cut even 0.010 thick stainless. Universal has just released CO2 Fiber combo laser and my first question to dealer was.....Will it cut metal? ...... Answer "NOOOOOO"!!!
On this one I am with CES020 and Watson sign.
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Is it at least 100 watt CO2? Does it have gas assist?
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
This argument is so simple.

1) out of the box laser ENGRAVERS specifically, trotec, universal and epilog, cannot cut metal.

2) the industrial lasers that cut metal ARE Co2 lasers.

Can we at least agree to this?

And can we then remember that this post is about metal business cards?
 
E

Esmae

New Member
Custom_Grafx said:
This argument is so simple.

1) out of the box laser ENGRAVERS specifically, trotec, universal and epilog, cannot cut metal.

2) the industrial lasers that cut metal ARE Co2 lasers.

Can we at least agree to this?

And can we then remember that this post is about metal business cards?
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Yeah I agree to that, those three plus some others out of the box will not cut metal without modifications ;)
 
A

andy

New Member
mikey-Oh said:
Ok, my air assist is just a jet of air to snuff out the flaming acrylic. I'll check into what a cutting gas setup'll run. Doubt I'll go for it, but I learned the ancient art of acid etch in college...
Click to expand...

Ask Esmae to provide you with a full financial guarantee BEFORE you start the process of ruining your optics and destroying your laser power supply and tube.

My abrasive waterjet accelerates mains tap water to a velocity of Mach 3 and delivers a stream of water >2mm in diameter at a full 60,000psi.

My mate's industrial YAG laser delivers a beam of laser energy at a full 9000watts. The machine cost half a million sterling and eats £9,000's worth of electricity every month.

These are the kinds of forces me and my mate use to cut metals... they are in a completely different league to the power generated by a sealed 100watt carbon dioxide laser tube.

Some "guy" on the interweb says that both of these machines are pointless indulgences.... a sealed Co2 laser engraver designed for NON metallic materials can cut the kind of metals people invest BIG money to cut with YAG's and water jets... yeah, and that's a Pig doing barrel rolls at 15,000 feet.
 
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