Laser engraving machine

[tsorfas]

Anyone know a thing or two about those? Thinking of an entry level one to do wood and plastic work.

[jasnmar]

I have access to one and provide saftey checkouts to people at the local makerspace.

[csmutty]

We have one at work. It's really fun and extremely handy. I've done a few personal projects with it and the hardest part is figuring out what materials do and don't work with it.

[loudbeard]

My wife’s mom used to work at LaserStar (marketing) I can find out for you if you let me know what you want to do.

[jasnmar]

This is a pretty decent reference for materials. http://atxhs.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter_M...HESE_MATERIALS
As part of the check out process we teach people to burn a small sample of material and look for a green flame. Anything that burns green is a big no no,as that indicates chlorine.
We do quite a bit of plywood,but you need to be very specific about the plywood you use. Cheap stuff from home depot doesn't cut consistently.

[csmutty]

Are we talking about two different things? Laser cutting vs last engraving?

I've engraved pvc and polycarbonate before. The polycarbonate comes out awesome with great definition.

[jasnmar]

Engraving is just cutting a little bit. The only difference is the power and speed.

Lasing anything with chlorine is producing some amount of chlorine gas, which is not the nicest stuff to deal with.

Depending on how the exhaust is set up, you might get away with it in a shop, but for most "hobbyist" setups it's at least somewhat risky. At the makerspace we just don't allow any material with chlorine to be cut.

[csmutty]

Interesting. Maybe because the PC is 3d printed it engraves like a thinner instance of the material.