I’ve recently started learning to use my laser engraver and have a quick quick to ask.
I’m engraving on 3mm ABS plastic sheets which come with a layer of film on them. Now I can’t take the film off as it’s beneficial for paint finishing the creations I make.
However on some occasion there is a build up of the film which stays left over on the engraved parts - which makes the paint finish look hit and miss when film is removed after.
For the settings on the part where it’s worked, I ran it at 200speed and max min power 20/5.
If anyone’s for any idea of how I can stop this happening. I think it’s because of the wider area it’s using but can’t understand how to change it. Maybe speed or lines per inch or power…
I can’t remove the plastic until it’s being painted after engraving - I’m thinking maybe if I was to increase the lines per inch slightly it would help with taking all excess film to the edges where’s it can easily peel off after paint is applied.
The hardest part would be making sure the piece doesn’t move. A jig would probably help. Or just a couple of pegs in the table to make sure the piece is in the same spot each time.
ABS does not cut well in a laser cutter. It tends to melt rather than vaporize, and has a higher chance of catching on fire and leaving behind melted gooey deposits on the vector cutting grid. It also does not engrave well (again, tends to melt). Cutting ABS plastic emits hydrogen cyanide, which is unsafe at any concentration.
Doh, totally fell for Your necro-bump
Well played indeed
Apologies for slight OT…
Generally speaking -and especially with our hobby lasers- @Sparkman raises a very valid and extremely important concern.
Commercial business of any kind is an entirely different thing, they have found a way to do it safely and feasibly.
After all they are primarily making money, it just happens to be made with lasers.
When evaporated/melted with laser energy, most of the materials that fall into “plastic” material category release nasty chemical compounds that are harmful to You and Your laser equipment.
The plastic category materials including obviously paints and other coatings.
A good rule of thumb is that if the material is man-made, there’s a good chance that harmful compounds are released when cut or marked with a laser.
It’s better to be safe than sorry, there’s a pic floating on the 'net and on these forums of a brand new laser cutter with a few hours of PVC/ABS (can’t remember which one) cutting behind it, and unfortunately that hefty investment can be written off as a total and complete loss.
Can, yes.
But working with ABS or other plastics often require special arrangements and/or equipment in order to be done safely.
There is a viable marking method for ABS that I previously wasn’t aware of, discussed at least in this:
thread.
The method is called “ABS foaming” and can produce quite decent results with minimal gaseous compound releasing.
In theory, if the bubbles do not burst, there’s no gaseous compounds released either.
Reality is obviously a different matter because some of the bubbles will burst, so accurate fume extraction is still required.
I haven’t tried ABS foaming yet so I can’t tell what equipment/wavelength produce the most consistent results.
On that thread the laser used was a xTool (near)IR module.
With that particular module, the extremely narrow focus range (a few tenths of a millimeter) combined with low power (2W optical), means marking anything but absolutely flat surface will produce yet another set of obstacles for achieving consistent results.
I’d assume that in this particular case, the foamed surface would offer a quite good grip for the paint.
OT off.
Edit: Since this is a necro thread, has anyone found a viable solution to this particular problem?
^This.
If (and as) the goal is to minimize the release of harmful fumes and maximize the accuracy and consistency, the protective film (whatever plastic that may be), its adhesive (if any), and the gas/air pockets forming between the surface and the protective film won’t help achieving those goals.
So my vote would also go for using a jig and removing the protective film if that’s feasible.
I had not realized how old this was until I hit reply, then I saw the date and was like “well damn…that might have been a pointless posting”. lol
I’m sure that pic you saw floating around was pvc, which is obviously still very bad. I’ve done abs stuff, i’m not dead my co2 still works.
A lot of new folks just jump on bandwagons, not saying that is you at all, and they often just regurgitate stuff they read without any understanding whatesoever. The plague of the interent.
I was looking up samples for abs engravings to show a guy saying they are crappy to engrave and came across that thread what I replied to.
But as with any topic on the internet, we can pull up 10 articles saying one thing and 10 articles saying the complete opposite, both claiming they are “right”.
Some of the abs stuff is actually coated abs, and you just remove the coating, but that’s a whole different topic as well.
and sure, the link I posted was from an obvious commercial entity that I’m sure sucks anything out of the air faster than we can even think about it…so we have to make sure we compare apples to apples.
I have been buying a lot of stuff from China lately and much of it is abs coated or molded and a lot of folks probly don’t even know it. No one is dying from it. It’s just the extreme “stop or you’ll die” posts that get to me at times.
Sassy sally with her new glowforge or xtool, probly not a good idea. Those with co2 machines that have a workshop running a business, not gonna die. Very general classification, but it is what it is.
well, i though i would jump in. When i engraved with my previous laser, we used a light coat of dish soap on the product instead of tape etc. i was able to paint and then after dried, wash off the remainder on the edges because of the soap film. I hope this helps.
First of all, apologies for not replying quicker.
I did read Your reply, but then something came up and I forgot all about this thread
Yeah, me neither.
On other forums I’m usually more alert because some folks get their kicks from necro-bumping, but this is the first forum where most of the threads get locked after one month of no replies.
At first I thought that it is a bit counter productive, but I based that assumption solely on the moderation on other forums I visit.
But on this forum the moderation is top notch, and clearly aimed towards building a solid knowledge base. so in that light it makes perfect sense.
Probably, since the fumes from ABS don’t act quite that fast.
but You obviously know the precautions one must take to do it safely.
That’s very true, and also very unfortunate.
I’ve noticed (not on this forum though) that way too many people think that it’s funny to give bad and potentially harmful -to ones wallet at least- “advice” over the 'net.
Filtering the information is everything, and they count on those people who for some reason lack on that vital skill .
Exactly, and that’s when the skill of filtering the information really pays off.
Me as well, but on the other hand I also think (shows my age I guess…) that sometimes it’s wiser to err on the side of caution.
People are often too lazy to read or watch the whole article or tutorial or whatever, so “stop or You’ll die” usually wakes them up.
When they’re awake, then it’s more productive to tell that “if You do this instead” or “if You take these precautions”, You’ll be all right.
