I’ve just received my xTool D1 Pro. Its still in the box as I have not had time to unpack and assemble it yet - that’s this weekend’s job!
I want to create an enclosure to keep the smoke and fumes under control. I’ve looked at so many different enclosures that it makes my head spin! The one item that I need to find is some laser safe Acrylic, to allow watching the laser but not necessarily having to use goggles.
In South Africa, ordering acrylic from Amazon is just ridiculous - the shipping is 5 times the cost of local acrylic. The local suppliers do not have knowledge to tell me what the specs are of a sheet and I am hesitant to just “pick a colour” and hope for the best.
Do you have any suggestions on specs, or nomenclature of acrylic so that I cna be certain to get the right one?
Thank you very much for your kind assistance!
Ask your local dealer for a small sample or piece of leftover orange acrylic and see if you can burn through with your laser. With diode lasers you should not be able to penetrate this material, i.e. it is suitable for the task. I myself have built an extraction box with a large lid in orange colored acrylic.
I built an enclosure with a fan just using OSB painted black on the inside and used orange acrylic for a 12"x12" viewing window on top. It was NOT rated as laser safe however my laser does have a shield but even so, I’m wary about looking directly at it without goggles because of reflected light. You should really get acrylic that is rated for laser use regardless of cost and even then be very careful directly viewing it. It can literally only take a second before eye damage happens and its not repairable. And most goggles that come with the lasers really aren’t that great either. An extra $100 is a small price to pay to keep your vision. I believe it really depends as to the opacity of the material. The darker the color (orange is best for blue diodes) the more protection.
Another option is to use a camera to view the burn on a monitor. Again, lasers are not toys and can ruin your eyesight extremely fast.
Brad
I’m interested in doing this. Do you happen to know the manufacturer of the acrylic and the color? My local dealer has no samples but says there are many orange and amber colors available.
Unfortunately I can’t remember who makes the colored material, it could be Perspex but I’m not sure.
In Denmark I buy it from “Interglas”, but “Bauhaus” and other building material stores also have it.
But remember to do a test first to see if your diode beam is absorbed or not. The color and type I used for my encapsulation box works fine and provides basic protection. When I work with diode lasers, I always wear my protective glasses.
