I operate the BOSS LS3655 155 watt laser with a Ruida controller. I am working on getting ideal cut settings figured out for polyester shim stock (McMaster 9513K64) that is 0.002". I am running into issues with the edges after cutting. The edge typically has burring, melting, and can be measured at 0.0035" thick after cutting, which is a 175% increase in thickness.
Is it possible to get a near perfect cut on this material being so thin and made of plastic? I am looking at other cutting options but want to exhaust the effort to find optimized conditions before spending more on a CNC knife cut table.
Any and all suggestions, recommendations, comments are welcome!
You may have too much fire in the hole, so to speak.
The problem: unlike acrylic, PET doesn’t neatly vaporize. It goes melty at a much lower temperature and basically turns into goo. Going fast and not giving it time to worry helps a bit.
I did manage to get some OK-ish holes in 0.6 mm PETG running at 75 mm/s and 60% of a 60 W laser:
In very round numbers, that would be 20% of your 155 W, but I’d expect it to be much less for your 0.05 mm sheets. You may not be able to throttle the tube down as far as necessary, because it will likely stop firing around 15%.
Cranking the speed up to compensate will help, unless you’re working with small features where the laser can’t go that fast.
