Fumes from Slate - Dangerous?

[Princy_Lightburn (Kevin)]

Hi,
Are the fumes from laser etching slates dangerous?

Regards
Kevin

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

Generally you need to know the chemistry of what you are vaporizing to determine if it’s dangerous or not.

With rock or slate, if it’s not coated by something for something like waterproofing then you are just ‘blasting’ rock out of it.

I’ve done quite a bit of slate, but far from ‘good’ at it. I run mostly with the top up so I watch how it runs with certain materials. With slate there is little to know ‘dust’ that is produced and it usually doesn’t go far from the damage.

Some kinds of slate will damage white or lighter and some will damage darker.

Both of these are slate.

Just keep in mind that the beam damages the surface and that those ‘particles’ will have some amount of it being aerosolized. If you can smell it or see it, don’t breath it. It’s a good rule of thumb.

[Princy_Lightburn (Kevin)]

@jkwilborn

If you can smell it or see it, don’t breathe it. It’s a good rule of thumb.

Thanks for your input on that. I like the above as a rule of thumb. I have difficulty in getting a good ventilation scheme going in my shack. Currently just relying on draft between two rooms with open windows.!
I may well ask a friend whose brother is something to do with rocks and stuff. He may be able to give me some details of what’s what. If I get any information I’ll post it here just for information.
Regards
Kevin