LASER CUTTING THICK MATERIAL IS HARD!

[@Marc-dr6mw]

Good video. thank you!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

Thanks for the tip! I've been having a bit of trouble getting through 5mm where the glue is thicker, didn't think to cheat the focus down a bit. Going to give this next time I need to cut 5mm, so in the next couple of Days. Cheers!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Note that if you have a diode laser, the focus is typically much longer, so you don't typically need to resort to this trick. If you have a CO2 you can also switch to a 5" lens to increase the useable length of the beam and avoid this.

[@reedrobb]

I just received the new Atomstack A70pro. My first ever laser. I’m trying to cut 1/2” prefinished engineered hardwood. After hours of struggling, I’ve been able to get some success with this method however, total success is on a knife edge. The balance between failure to penetrate and catching the wood on fire is difficult. Every successful moment comes with 10 new failures. I just cannot quite find the balance. I believe the trouble I am having is the project includes a series of 1/4” slots in a long row. Think of the 7 holes in a Jeep grill. I’ve had some good clean cuts but then a fire. One pass isn’t sufficient and two passes results in flames. My understanding of the problem seems to be the closeness of one hole to the next. Not the distance between necessarily but rather the time the laser spends in a given area. I predict either the heat from the nozzle or the air assist system is keeping the flame alive from the previous cut. So, I’ve experimented with forcing Lightburn to move around the project in a random pattern to reduce exposure of heat and air in a given cut. Sound logical? I’m not to complete success yet, still struggling. Thanks for the tips.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Laser companies usually imply that you can cut 2x4’s in one pass with their laser, and this is sometimes true, but the result will be terrible. Rather than trying to bull through wood with 100% power and glacial speed, instead make several passes that go faster. This will give you a cleaner cut. The method in this video is more for CO2 lasers. Diode lasers have a longer focal length so you don’t normally need to resort to these tricks.

[@WashingtonStreetStudios]

Steve, first I want to thank you for your videos! I've watched them all and I am inspired to get better. I watched this video on cutting thick materials and I am trying to cut 1/2 inch mdf with my 100W Muse Titan and I'm trying work with the focus levels. I'm getting the focus retraction amount reported in two different units, mm (6.800)and inches (0.268). The problem is if I try to adjust the amounts the laser either hits the material or goes too high. My goal is to cut a thick piece of wood by doing the first pass at the normal retraction amount, then doing a second pass at a lower retraction amount. Can someone let me know what I'm doing wrong?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

It’s odd that your project is using two different units. Check in RE3 settings to make sure the unit are set correctly and then check the units in your project to make sure they are the same. No sure how you created the project but I’m wondering if you imported components from different places and maybe RE3 is bring the units in with the component. I’m going to try to reproduce this to see if I can see the same behavior. Then at least I can tell you how to fix it

[@jettshaw890]

Thanks for the tip! I have a muse core as well and have been struggling with cutting 1/4” Baltic birch, I keep getting dark char marks. I see yours has a bit as well, do you sand it off? I noticed the box at the start of the video has no charring at all but I just can’t get rid of it. I’d love some tips from you or even a video of how your clean up your cuts! Thanks!!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes any 40W laser is going to struggle a bit with 1/4” material - especially hardware store plywood and this procedure helps, but you are always going to get some charring. To mitigate this you can try lower power and/or a bit higher speed and add additional passes (dropping the focus a bit more with each pass). Also spend a bit of time check your alignment. The better it is, the more power you will cut to the cut zone. A more extreme solution would be to change the lens in your laser. Mine had a 2” lens, which is great for fine detail but has a very sharp focal point. I switched to a 2.5” lens recently because the point at which the laser is in focus is more elongated and this improves cutting thicker materials as well.

[@macrumpton]

You might try masking the top and bottom of the birch with a adhesive transfer paper. This paper roll is made for moving vinyl decals from a cutter to the final position. You can try out the concept by just covering the area to be cut with masking tape. The tape absorbs some of the heat spilling over, so protects the wood from burning and resin released by the burning.

[@jamessepulveda5202]

honestly. invest in specialty lenses like american photonics. picked up a 3 lense kit from them and all the 3 lenses does everything i need. 1.5 for detailed engraving like pictures and acrylic, 2.5 for my detailed cuts like mdf and 1/8th birch. and 4for my thick plywood cuts cutting 1/2 inch ply like butter on my 130 watt laser. the best thing about the lense kit. it was only $130 came with all 3 lenses and nozzles and all use 10 mm or double AA battery to set the lense to your material to cut. no need for auto focus

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I did this purposely on a Muse 3D with a 2.5" lens because that is what most people have for optics. While I own a 5" lens for this laser, I didn't want to just throw money at the problem because so many people are on a budget. I could have used my 90W laser and just avoided the whole issue, but where's the fun in that? 😀

[@daviderickson6551]

I have an unusual problem. I ues the inclined board method of laser focus for my Creality Falcon 10w diode laser. My "zero" location is front / left. If I cut a line, left to right, in 3mm Baltic Birch at "Y" of 300mm, the cut is cleanly through. If I cut a line, left to right, at a "Y" of 50mm, the cut is only half through this same piece of Baltic Birch. My table is flat. The honeycomb is screwed to the table, so it is flat. The laser feet all sit firmly on the table. I believe the laser is a uniform height above the wood. Obviously, I'm missing something. Can you help?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

This is an interning problem but I can’t think of why in might be happening given your set up. Diode lasers are far less sensitive to minor focus differences than a CO2 laser would be. Normally if you are close to focus it will work everywhere. Presumably if you can adjust the focus at 50mm to get it to cut through, then it would no longer cut through at 300mms. Have you tried this?

[@jeteemetro6169]

Hi Steve, very interesting tip to cut thicker pieces of materials. I wonder though how you setup your simulator. Having to turn on the laser to prep every cut has been annoying me lately. Would love to hear of an alternative. It does not seem to be a popular topic out there, so wonder if anyone else has done it yet. All the best

[@SteveMakesEverything]

The simulator is available on FSL's web site here: re3.netlify.app/designer. You can select the FSL laser you have at the top of the screen and after that it's pretty much like your laser except you can't actually run a job. You can create and save projects from there though and load them into your laser later.

[@jeteemetro6169]

@@SteveMakesEverything Hidden in plain sight… thank you

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Fwiw FSL did finally make it easy to find. It was a treasure hunt in past 😏

[@dusticdustmakerdesigns]

I am trying to cut 1/4" MDF on 24w láser the first time went great now I can't get it to cut all the way through. I'll give your suggestion a try and see if that's the issue

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Not if you are using a diode laser, you can just do multiple passes rather than moving the focus.

[@dusticdustmakerdesigns]

@@SteveMakesEverything i tried that and it because a chard mess and still didn't cut through. Yes I have a diode

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@dusticdustmakerdesigns MDF can be hard to cut, but if you set your speed to somewhere between 1000-2000mm/min and a power of 100% (or even a bit lower) you will be able to do a bunch of passes to get through it. Do as many passes as you need. The tendency for most people is to go slow with full power in a single pass, and that is a bit like holding a blow torch to the material. Unfortunately, this is what laser manufactures try to tell us is good.

[@dusticdustmakerdesigns]

@@SteveMakesEverything about how many passes

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@dusticdustmakerdesigns Depends how thick the material is but start with 10. If the cut is obviously not through the material then rerun the same job without moving the material.

[@spectaa3138]

Darth Sidious course on lasers I'll take it!

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Hope it helps

[@versus023]

Can you do this in lightburn?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Yes in lightburn you can adjust the Z-axis on the second pass. Do this by editing the power settings for your item and change the "Z step per pass" field then then add as many passes as you think you will need.

[@versus023]

@@SteveMakesEverything thank you! I will try this!

[@mrgrinch61]

like magic THANKS

[@SteveMakesEverything]

This is best for CO2 lasers. Diode lasers are generally better at cutting thicker material.

[@Beecher_Dikov]

I cut 1/4" luan (3/16 actual or 4.6mm) at 450mm/m at 100% power with a 22w creality and it cuts beautifully. 8mm takes 3 passes. I haven't tried anything thicker.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Overall, diode lasers are much better at cutting thicker wood than CO2 lasers in part because they almost always have longer focal-length lens (most CO2 lasers use a 2" lens). As a result, you don't normally need to resort to trickery like adjusting focus

[@Beecher_Dikov]

@@SteveMakesEverything I've only had it a month... haven't advanced enough to try any trickery yet...

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@Beecher_Dikov 😀The trickery is really more for CO2 lasers

[@3DJapan]

Right now I'm testing the Atomstack P7 M40. They claim it can cut 10mm plywood. I don't have any that thick to test with but it had no problem with 5mm.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Diode lasers (especially 10W) can get through 5mm with relative ease in a few passes and a 60W+ CO2 will cut it easily as well. 40-45W lasers will struggle a lot with 5-6mm plywood and that's the predominate CO2 laser so I wanted to target those for this video.

[@MrLeonpan]

Hi Steve, what power of your tube? I have a 60W Reci tube and haven't any problems to cut 6mm plywood ! I used this method to cut thich materials last year and I have luck to cut 12mm hardwood and 20mm softwood )

[@SteveMakesEverything]

A 60W would be fine with 6mm- it's just on the edge limit for a 40W laser though - especially hardware store plywood that usually uses evil glues that aren't really designed to be cut by lasers.

[@wannabechoppers8612]

I wonder if that only applies to CO² lasers or also to diode lasers?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Diode lasers are a bit different because they have a much longer range of focus. So they can naturally cut through thicker materials

[@drledrattanak]

Can it cut copper sheet 0.1mm and 0.2mm ?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Something that thin might be possible , though CO2 lasers won’t cut metals as a rule. Just have to try it. You could probably cut that with a Cricut cleaner

[@drledrattanak]

@@SteveMakesEverything I don’t think so I try utility knife doesn’t cut at all. If you try CO2 cut copper I’ll appreciate

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Isn’t this like foil? I don’t have any copper to try. If you know someone in your area with a laser maybe you could get them to try it for you. I do have some printed circuit board material that I can try though the copper of that is probably only 50 mil or some

[@matthewlewis5631]

No, you won’t be able to cut metals. At best you might ablate the oxide layer on top and leave a fine mark. To cut metals you need much higher power (over 200W) and depending on the material, oxygen in lieu of air assist. You could also try a fiber laser which is a different wavelength and can do multiple passes to ‘cut’ through thin material.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@matthewlewis5631 If the metal is very thin you can sometimes cut through it with a CO2. A fiber laser is definitely a better bet

[@weboflies999]

A clear advantage to having the 3d camera. Not having it I may try this by manually lowering it myself and try to estimate.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

FWIW You don't.need a 3D camera at all. If you are doing a manual focus then create a second focus puck that is roughly half the thickness of your normal puck and adjust the focus before doing the second pass. I will go into my usual rant about Lightburn support on the Muse because Lightburn can do this automatically on a second pass if your laser has a powered Z axis.

[@weboflies999]

@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks Steve, I'm pretty much a greenhorn and been having real trouble cutting through 3mm MDF without 50 passes lol! Maybe this will yield results.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@webOfLies Well MDF is pretty hard to grind though in general, but if it is taking more than a 2 or 3 passes then there is something going awry. Check your alignment first (FSL did a decent alignment video not too long ago) or you can watch mine, though I cut all kinds of corners when I do alignment. Try some aggressive settings as well (100%power and maybe 5% speed) to see what happens. With a 40W laser it's pretty tough to get through MDF without some scorching tough. Also make sure you are cutting MDF design for laser cutting. Some of the material you get at a hardware store has very dense glues that make it nearly impossible to cut

[@weboflies999]

@@SteveMakesEverything I've done alignment and the dots seem to be pretty close together. But I noticed this time that the actual burn mark is like a quarter or what it was before? Is this indicative of a faulty laser? Now that I think about it this unit has just gotten weaker and weaker over time...longer and less powerful. Could I have a bad laser? Thanks for your input Steve.

[@weboflies999]

Oh, its a Muse Core 45 W....no camera.

[@puntabachata]

There's a good video titled: How to cut through double the thickness

[@SteveMakesEverything]

Thicker material is easier with a 30-40W diode laser or a higher power CO2. Smaller CO2 laser struggle with play wood that’s thicker than a few millimeters

[@nikhilbarchha7272]

Hey Steve, we have a 150 W CO2 tube and a 4" lens, and wish to cut a 30 mm cast acrylic sheet. Any suggestions? Nikhil from India.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

I think it would be pretty tough to get through 30mm acrylic with a 150W laser

[@electronron1]

I've had good luck cutting 1/4" Luhan Plywood but not other types of plywood.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

It's possible that Luan is less dense than other types of plywood. The challenge with typical plywoods from places like Home Depot is that they are often designed to be waterproof so they tend to use that dark brown or black glue between layers and it is brutal cutting. I've also found some plywoods have nyon or firberglass filaments running between layers to give them extra strength. A 90+ watt laser can hack through it relatively easily though.

[@SeamusHarper1234]

I've tried this with MDF but all I got was charcoal xD 12mm was a bit too much, probably. Even for the 100w laser.

[@SteveMakesEverything]

12mm of MDF is pretty hard stuff. Plywood might be possible with 100W in a couple of passes. MDF is about 30% glue and 70% sawdust. The glue is brutal stuff.

[@nyraalcorn2793]

Hi Steve, I have a muse core, but my R3 isn’t giving me this option to manually focus. May you help me or is this not an option for the basic 40W Core machine ?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

You won’t find this option in RE3 on a Muse Core because the focus is always manual

[@nyraalcorn2793]

@@SteveMakesEverything thank you, is it impossible to do this method since I have the basic version?

[@SteveMakesEverything]

@@nyraalcorn2793 Indeed it is possible. In fact, with a Muse Core or any laser with manual focus, you can just adjust the focus down slightly on the second pass. Of course you do need to appreciate the limitations of a 40W laser. No matter what,, there will be limits to the thickness you can through, which in the case of a Muse will be about 6mm.

[@ClownWhisper]

Okay here's the $10,000 question if you had to buy a machine and you had the money to cut as thick material as possible but still stay in the hobby market and that move up to an industrial machine which machine would you be looking at. This is a very very important question to me because I need a machine that's going to cut maximum thickness. I'm thinking that maybe I should build my own machine with a water cool laser but I don't know if I want to get into all that

[@SteveMakesEverything]

So I’ll start with a question. What material are you cutting? You could build your own, but to be clear all co2 laser are liquid cooled. Assuming you are cutting wood and you really want to stay close to a hobby laser format, I’d go with something like a 100w Muse Titan. Beyond that you’d be looking at an Epilog or Trotec laser, but to call those hobby laser would be an injustice

[@sotm2]

50.8 mm to be exact.

[@jujucattys156]

Very bad Charing tho

[@SteveMakesEverything]

This is a function for a CO2 laser with a short focus. Diode lasers typically can work around this problem.