I’m everyday impressed by the kind of work those CO2 laser can do. My latest attempt, a 20mm thick Birch Wood board. This thing is dense, heavy, but at 5mm/s, 90% power, full air assist (40PSI), it did an amazing result!
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Hi Christian, what power is that laser? I tried looking up the model number, but couldn’t find anything.
Cheers
David
I have a RECI W8 laser tube, therefore 150W combined with a 4 inches lens
Nice!
I’ve done 20mm poplar on my 100w reci with a 2" lens and a pond pump at 4mm/s and 95% power setting in the software. We did 3 flights of stair bannisters for an architect once that way. Found it was better to pull the grid out of the laser and just use the supports under it at the ends, kept the flareups and damage under it down.
Obviously I need more power, my 50W just doesn’t cut it 
Cheers
David
@DavidF :
you can always cut the workpiece 4 times out of 5mm and glue them together … that way you’ll have 20mm too 
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Good point @Vinkske, you will have the plywood look at the end but the walls will be for sure more straight because even with a 4" lens, there’s still an angle.
True! … now this is where one needs to wheigh what’s more important , right ? After all , how often does one need 20mm thick material lasered? I’ve tried lasering 15mm birch plywood once with my 100watt laser and sure it did the trick , but I found the edges to be too scorched to be usefull. -I wonder however it that wouldn’t have been better if I lasered at lower power but multitude of passes- For me personally , the few times a year where I have need of thicker material , the fact of having an angle is less important than the cost of a new 150watt laser 
… I’ll just switch back to manual labor and take a file to straithen things out 
lol
Actually, I always had terrible results on the wall visual quality using multiple passes, it was obivious visually where those layers were.
I owever had no problem with any scorch using a frequency of 1KHz and one pass.
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Well none of that sounds as much fun as needing a bigger laser!!! however, for most thicker jobs I make a template on the laser in 6mm ply or acrylic and route it old school before doing any internal engraving back on the laser. Generally works well.
Cheers
David
which nozzle diameter did you use for this nice cut?
My 101mm (4") II-VI meniscus lens provides a straight edge on 20mm (3/4") material.
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