CNC is going to be excruciatingly messy with debris.
Laser is going, to a greater or lesser extent, “hourglass” the cut. Fortunately PE foam is safe to cut with CO2 laser. Layering is a good way to overcome. I cut a 10" foam storage section with multiple 2" foam.
With a 4" lens you may be able to do a single sheet and depending on how straight (vertical) the cuts need to be.
This is for CO2 laser, not diode. Pulling a number from thin air, a 50W laser would probably be sufficient, as long as the bed size was big enough.
Hey Rick, Yeah I’m leaning towards laser, especially since it may open the door for more potential products/upgrades with my business (CAD/3dPrint/Manufacture Auto Accessories).
My research leads me to believe a Co2 would be better for PE foam up to 1" think, but the price of Co2 lasers is a bit off putting giving my use case really.
My boxes are typically smaller, around 9x6 so I don’t really need a large working area unless I wanna cut many box inserts at once, which would be nice.
Would a 20-40w diode laser like an Xtool S1 work for my needs, or do I really need Co2?
Just found the Monport Reno45 45W Desktop CO2 Laser within my budget, wonder if that would work out ok, any thoughts?
A diode laser does not work well on white PE. That is why CO2 is better.
Googled CO2 laser and hit this one: “Monport Reno45 45W Desktop CO2 Laser Engraver & Cutter (16" X 12") with Brand New Semi-Autofocus” for about $1000. I paid more than that for my Sculpfun 40w SF-A9 machine. Not promoting Monport, but I am sure there should not be a money issue. Besides, you can take in other work to help justify the purchase.
IMO, a diode laser will have trouble with anything other than dead-black foam, because light material reflect pretty nearly all visible light … which is exactly what a visible-light diode laser emits. As a result, a diode will cut poorly, particularly through any material with non-zero-ish thickness.
Opinion: That laser has some disadvantages:
Cloud-first design, so it depends on their servers
No control panel, so you must use their interface
LightBurn is “compatible”, but an afterthought
A previous discussion about the Gweike Cloud:
You should definitely do test runs before plunking down serious money!
Well crap, is there anything in the $2k range that can cut 1" Black/Charcoal PE foam well enough for box inserts?
I’m not trying to start a laser cutting business really, just looking for an affordable way to make box inserts instead of paying an outside company, especially since I would like to design my own inserts and change things on the fly as needed.
Because there’s nothing like a good new problem to take one’s mind off all one’s old problems, these are slabs from the Box o’ Foam Stuff, about 1.5 inches thick. The cuts were simple squares run at 50% of 60 W at 25 mm/s:
None of the cuts went cleanly through the foam, so I cut through the bottom with scissors to reveal the kerf between the left and right halves. The left halves show the kerfs end-on.
IMO, a laser is not the right cutter for foam packaging around anything spendy enough justify the foam.
Well, the problem is I design and manufacture new products all the time, so I need flexibility to create my own inserts, thus was thinking of creating my own.
I did, however, unless I’m wrong, hot wire foam cutters cannot plunge cut, and I need to make inserts, similar to the below I designed and printed with my 3d printers:
Yes, the wire cutter cannot do a plunge cut. You would need to glue the cut. There are knife cutters, but they are either hand held or CNC expensive. If you can’t find a laser the size and budget you need, I agree with MikeyH above, would it just be simpler to find a foam fabricator business to do the jobs?
A K40 “brand/model” CO2 laser @~$500 night work for you.
Had an idea, I know this is a laser community, but maybe I can convert one of my old 3d printers into a plotter and utilize a hot foam pen to cut through the foam, like this:
$13 and some time, might be worth a try. Just depends on the speed of it, and whether you can start a foam cutting job and still be in the room doing something else, NEVER leave a hot meting tool alone! It would probably be neat to semi-automate that process. My unanswered question is: does it heat along the length of the rod, so that you might be able to cut the thickness of the foam in one pass?
Now you can propose the idea in plotter or 3D groups t see what others think. Good luck.
