Air assist and cutting plywood LM2 5.5 watt

Community Laser Talk
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Is there a dedicated source for plywood that is specifically for laser cutting? because the stuff i have is not very good. Its 6mm plywood, and i have been able to cut all the way through it with 300mm/min, 85% power and 10 passes.

Today i hooked up my new 38L/min air pump with nozzle, and i did 300mm/min, 85% power and 5 passes all the way through. So i wanted to test it again, and even with air assist, it didnt cut through. I increased power to 90% and same issue. So i am guessing either tons of glue or knots in that spot.

this leads me to try and find plywood that is not glue or knot heavy. I would even be ok with 4 or 5mm and gluing the parts together if needs be.

so, in summery, is there a source that has wood specfic for laser cutting, including diode lasers such as mine?
second, what 3d printed nozzle do you recomend for the laser master 2 non pro?

thanks

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Any natural material, especially and kind of mdf will vary from piece to piece. There is some hobby stuff around and there is high grade mdf… You really pay for that and it usually comes in 4x8 foot sheets… add trouble to shipping it…

Hang around… there are some people here who have posted links for high grade mdf but the prices gave me a cardiac issue…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

2 Likes
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well, dang haha. Just tired of trying to engrave and in some spots, it wont even burn…

4

Ordinary BB grade “Baltic birch” from the usual Amazon suspects works well enough, at least in my 60 W CO₂ laser.

You could also try:

https://ocoochhardwoods.com/plywood/

As a rule of thumb, if the plywood’s description doesn’t say it’s intended for laser cutting, then it won’t work well, particularly with a relatively low powered diode laser.

Even though my laser can cut Âľ inch hardwood, it completely failed to cut ordinary Âľ inch plywood:

Your mileage will definitely differ!

1 Like
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thanks for the information. Tiles are easy and so has everything else, but nooo, i had to venture into plywoods haha.

I have heard good things about ocoochhardwoods. I might give them a try

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We have to thank people like you who do this… most of the good stuff comes from people trying things… like you…

:smile_cat:

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thanks. I do alot of testing on my machine. more testing than producing hahaha. So far i have cut 6mm ply in 5 passes with 300mm/min and 85% power, B UT i am learning that if i move the plywood to start a new cut, it takes 10 passes because of the inconsistent gluing. I have tried 3 different air assist nozzles, done the computational fluid dynamic analysis on each one to see whats better.

I just want to make some cash now so i can upgrade the module to either a co2 or a higher wattage diode, but i dont think my controll board can handle a 24v module…