Epilog laser cutting question (again)

[Wowee18]

Has anyone successfully cut .5" clear acrylic on one of these machines? I think we need to do a 2 pass cut on it but haven't found the perfect settings to get perfect results (every) time. Need to be able to cut dimensional letters.

Thanks in advance!

Mark in West Mich.

 

[CES020]

How many watts do you have? 45W will just cut through it and it's slow. You need 60W or more to cut it, really more into the 100W to make it worth doing.

If not, it's cheaper to have them cut by Gemini.

 

[Wowee18]

We have the 120W machine with a 24"x36" bed. Should have put that in the first post(=

 

[CES020]

Oh, you should be good to go. Frequency of 5000 and air assist.

 

[Wowee18]

We slow it way down to about 6 at full power and 5k freq. but its not clean on the bottom side. Sharp angles tend not to go through all the way. Even after we set the focus down into the material a touch.

 

[CES020]

You might try dropping the frequency back to 1000 or less and seeing if that fixes your problems. Part of the problem it sounds like you are having is remelt. If your air assist is just the air sweep across the top of the work, it's not ejecting the debris through the cut like a nose cone type air assist would do, where the beam shoots through the air assist nose cone.

I'd think you should be able to cut much faster than 6% with that kind of wattage. How far into the material are you focusing?

 

[Wowee18]

We focus down to almost the halfway point of the piece. We are getting OK results but not quite good enough of our pickier customers.

We're thinking about getting the 4" cone lens as it gives a better focal range and the air goes straight down through the cut.

 

[CES020]

That would serve you better, I think. The 4" will get that extra focal length as well as the cone air assist will get you good evacuation of the debris.