laser cut buildings


H

hoscaler

New Member
ok so I am new to this but I have access to a laser cutter and am trying to laser cut some buildings but the problem is that the plastic I am using is to soft so it curls like a banana when it is getting cut I don't recall right off hand what kind of material it is but it is pretty soft and flexible. so does any body know of a good material that can be laser cut that is about an 1/8" thick that wont curl? any help would be appreciated
 
You need a really good laser cutter for nomal styrene - about $15,000 worth of good. :) The laser cutter should work on wood, which I imagine it was probably made for anyway. I think what might work with a laser cutter is acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, which is harder and has a higher melting point. You can can get ABS plastic at places like Tap Plastics.
 
the laser cutter I have access to is a very good laser cutter. it is at least $15,000 if not more and is an industrial laser cutter and probably couldnt get bought by an average person like me unless I came across alot of money :D but that's wishfull thinking
 
Any of the commercially available wood sheets should work great with that cutter. Also the thin plywoods should work great as well.
 
You've posted this same topic in two different places so it's kind of hard to keep up. If you're saying this is a commercial laser, I'm assuming there's a qualified operator that you need to talk to. Some laser cutters are made for wood, some for metal, some for rubber, and some for plastic. The guy who normally operates this machine should be able to tell you what work it's capable of doing.
 
yea sorry about the confusion of posting it twice, I posted it in the wrong forum the first time. there is a qualified operator for this laser cutter and it is a cutter that can cut pretty much anything but thick metal. you have no idea what this thing can do, it is rather impressive. this is no run of the mill machine, it was bought by the company to make parts out of different kinds of plastics, rubber,wood etc. the operator is still relatively new to it so he doesn't know everything about the different plastics since there are like thousands of differend kinds. so we are kind of experimenting with it till we get it right.
 
Pretty cool then, since you should be able to use it on plastic, wood, or brass once you get it figured out. I assume it's computer programmed so I imagine it's just getting all the settings right. Once you can, you should be able to crank out parts by the hundreds. :)
 
Look aroung in the Yahoo groups for a laser cutting group or talk to another company willing to share the knowledge and

finally i am pretty sure the manufacturer would have a wealth of information for you.
 
yea we used autocad to design a bunch of pretty nice looking houses, now if I can just find a material to use. the operator is pretty good but I dont know if his boss will let him cut them out by the hundreds, I thought about making a mold and selling them but that will depend on how they turn out. once I get everything working i'll try and post some pictures of them. but as of right now it may be a little while as he's pretty busy doing "work" if that's what you want to call it
 
Just be careful using some plastics as the fumes may be toxic. Alot will depent on the laser itself. 40W,60W, 80W etc...
I am using an 80w to cut wood and brass.
 
cutting with lasers

I have only been involved with lasers for metal, from what I know the focal shape, speed and wattage are the trick. Too wide a focus with too much wattage will toast it, too slow will toast it too.

Good luck, sounds like a fun time.
 
In that case, I should use one to cut my loaf of bread. That way, I can cut and toast it at the same time, saving a step....

:D

Kennedy (Time is Layout Working)
 
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