Yoyoyo…that’s an important information, thank you. I’ve seen this raising trick for cutting without stains, but the point of the honeycomb chambers without air flow sounds like a problem, yes.
I have to see wether my obsession with the vacuum downholding of material will affect this bc I might get some sort of air stream through the cut. The air turbine for that is really strong.
But if this doesn’t work for wood I will have to fall back to the raising trick. I don’t see an easy way to combine this with vacuum (against wobbly plates).
Ah, has anyone ever used CO2 for air assist? It would extinguish flames instantly I think. Maybe I try this just for fun. For cutting inflammable material this might be advisable anyway?
Also, I might stop air assist bc of the smoke extractor hose above the material, so I reduce fresh air flow and therefore flames and blackening, I hope.
Had to check late in the night…YES! It’s steel indeed!
That’s one neat option instead or besides the vaccum project. You just have to pay attention of where to place the magnets so you won’t disturb a cut…but just in case I could run over it a second time.
No, because it involves releasing copious quantities of an invisible odorless gas that will kill you in moderate concentrations. Make one error with the exhaust system, let it leak for a while, and they carry you out toes up and feet first.
Plus, organic materials have plenty of oxygen bound up in their chemistry and AFAICT will support enough combustion in the kerf to negate any benefit from a CO₂ flood.
Even with a perfect vacuum underneath, there’s essentially no pressure pushing air through a 0.2 mm kerf that’s 3 mm tall: the aspect ratio is all wrong. Even a jet of compressed air through the nozzle produces barely enough flow to clear the kerf.
If you’re dealing with strongly warped material, the cut pieces will curl as they’re cut. Tabs might hold them in place, at the cost of manually cutting all those the tabs.
I usually place around the perimeter. If there is unidirectional warp then I place the convex side onto the bed. If warped all over the place then I hold down the edges, run the file at engraving only power level, then place the magnets out of the area of the cut. I work mostly with wood, so I don’t know if that would be a viable strategy on plastics that have an uneven surface.
For what it’s worth, a honeycomb bed can sag over time especially in the center, a bit like a worn out mattress does. I have placed some magnets (of equivalent thickness to the frame of the honeycomb bed) between it and the metal frame on which it rests to prevent that from happening. A 1mm sag in the bed can play havoc with beam focus if you need crisp lines on a job.
Sounds like you confuse that with CO? If CO2 would kill, welding would be extremely dangerous.
For the air stream throught the cutting gap you’re probably right. My thoughts were also to prevent burnt surfaces, but there seem to be other solutions.
If CO2 helps, I might elongate the nozzle to force it through the gap…I don’t think it’s likely to be a genious solution, but it might be worth trying.
Myeah, there will be limits what can be forced down and the popping parts are additionally difficult. I hope the vac will help here, too. If not, I might have to flatten it, then wait or warm the material up to the release the tension (with thermoplastic material).
I can’t change it that some of my material IS warped, so I need to find solutions.
As I intend to cut cloth or tarp material the vac seems to be the most versatile method.
The vac idea is combined with the requirement of getting rid of the smoke/fume on the underside and this suction is improved by a maze grid (back-forth-back-forth…) of support sheet metal ribs - such is the plan.
Any gas leaking through this gap goes in the right direction.
The only hassle will be to get the surrounding free areas fairly airtight. I think a silicone sheet will do that best, or some cheap PVC tarp material for the start. The covers in x and y can just overlap.
Nope. CO binds tightly with hemoglobin and will keep you breathing happily until you drop dead. CO₂ has the advantage of triggering your low-oxygen reflex, but there are plenty of examples of folks walking into low-oxygen situations where they couldn’t just walk out.
Open-air welding is different than venting gas into a confined space, no matter how good the exhaust may be.
Okay…will keep that in mind. But the spaces for welding and lasercutting are roughly the same. The problem is about the ventilation and about the gas flow which does not need to be very high, similar to welding.
I won’t do that if it doesn’t solve some problems that I can’t solve otherwise. CO2 costs money.