Good afternoon everyone. I searched the forum so apologies is this question has already been asked. I recently purchased the AtomStack M100-130W primarily to help me cut thin metal for plaques and of course to speed up my wood burning. The M100 advertised that it could cut thin metal, engrave on stainless and cut through pretty significant thickness of wood. The wood is going fine but when put very thin metal under it it wound even leave a mark even at the highest settings. Any help would be great.
Define thick in this case. I’ve heard of some of machines cutting through extremely thin sheets in the 0.001" thickness range. The results are not what I would consider clean either. These type of blue diode lasers are really not suited for metal cutting work and if that is your primary goal then I’d suggest cutting your losses now.
It should, however, be able to engrave stainless relatively well and indeed cut through some quite thick wood.
Thanks for response. Yes, I understand these are not the exact go to by any means for cutting metal but it’s hard to believe it won’t even make a mark. Also, AtomStack states it can cut 0.05mm thin metal. These plaque plates are very thin so I would expect it to atleast mar it up.
How thin and what is the material made from? 0.05mm would be in the category of extra heavy duty aluminum foil so quite thin. Anything reflective like aluminum, copper, brass is likely a no go. Stainless steel is likely to be a challenge for cutting through. You could try steel sheet.
Also, what types of settings are you using? You’d likely need to move excessively slow, in the 60 mm/min range or less.
The complete module requires 130W of power… the output is from 4 6W dpssl diodes… so ~20W…
Amazon call this Brass Metal Thin Sheet Foil
Atomstack claims to cut it and the displayed items look nice…
I wouldn’t attempt to cut that with my co2 either…
Good luck
I don’t see physically how this would even work. I assume anything that does cut will require a good bit of post-processing to make look presentable.
I have no clue either… it’s only a 20W output… and it’s visible light…
The dot size isn’t any smaller than my co2 with a compound lens…
It is less a matter of thickness, and more a matter of metal itself being seen as a mirror (whether dull or shiny.) Glass, plastics of nearly all kinds, wood and other vegative matter and stone and tile are seen by the CO2 laser beam as opaque, they readily absorb the energy of the laser, and either cut or at least leave a mark (referred to as “damage” by Russ Sadler. Metals on the other hand are seen as mirrors and reflect the beam away. Coating the metal with a material is the only way to mark metals with our CO2 lasers.