Laser cutting of wood

[ozstockman]

First of all I want to say that if I am breaking any rules advertising my service I apologize for it. Please delete my thread in this case.

I just hope somebody can find my service in laser cutting very useful for their DIY projects.

Now, what I can offer is laser cutting of MDF, Plywood, softwood or even hardwood up to 19mm thick.
If you have some parts that are required to be made of these materials please PM me. I will need either DXF file or just simple vector file with your part drawn in 2d perspective. The best for vector files will be CDR format(Corel Draw) but eps or svg will work as well. AI files are not good because they come compressed and my software cannot open compressed files.

The parts I can cut out can be as big as 1000x700mm or anything smaller that fits into a panel of 1000x700mm size. It's the current size of the laser bed where I can get good cutting quality.

If you do not have any drawing for you parts I can do simple shapes myself but nothing too complex,sorry.

Re materials, MDF and plywood comes in huge panels so it won't be a problem to get material in panels with 1000x700mm size and thicknesses from 3mm and up to 18mm. However natural wood(pine and tassy oak for example) comes usually in 19mm thickness and the maximum width I have seen for non laminated pieces is 285mm wide. So please bear it in mind when asking me for your parts to be done in pine/oak.

P.S. After I solve some issues with a laser beam alignment I will be able to do parts up to 1290x890mm in size. This is a tricky laser machine that is using two laser tubes with beams combined. It is really hard to align them at every corner without help from a factory that made it. Unfortunately they are very slow on help so for now I have to use only part of my laser bed size.

[ozstockman]

I think I will need to throw just a few ideas of what can be cut with a laser of wood:

wheels for filters for cameras, boxes for your scopes, cameras and eyepieces. holders, rings for scopes or even almost the whole dobsonian scope. I have seen some free CNC/lasercut plans on the internet for a DIY dobsonian scope.

And one more idea that I have been thinking about for a long time, if anyone can actually try to draw plans for the whole dome frame made of plywood. Sure it will need some metal or any other waterproof sheets(may be even just thin marine plywood sheets that will be easy to bend) to cover it up but I guess it won't be hard to get.

[Poita]

Very cool!

[torana68]

Maybe find a good dob mount to cut out for people?

[Wavytone]

Mike, have you considered making this a "we cut and deliver to your door" complete end-to-end service ? By this I mean supplying the materials, cutting from the drawing, disposing of the waste, and delivering the cut parts ? If you had an initial list of materials you can supply - including marine ply and aircraft-grade birch - this would increase its attractiveness as I am sure many of us don't want the hassles of having to arrange to ship a couple of sheets of 1200 x 2400 x 20mm ply for the sake of 1 job, chop that up to suit your cutting bed, then dispose of the bits left over.

Regarding birch, I don't mean the bog-standard grade I do mean aircraft grade, its a lot stronger than anything else short of using composites or metals.


Anyone thinking about laser cutting might like to take a look at the detailed instructions at http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/design-it-yourself which includes a useful video about how to make tight joints.
While Ponoko offer a delivered-to-your-door service, the materials, thickness and maximum size they can cut are not sufficient for making dobs so yes its good to see a local who can provide this.

Having tried this (with Ponoko) there are few notes to be aware of - these will be equally relevant to Mike's system:

a) carefully study the guidance on how to prepare the CAD drawings.
b) remember to allow for the width of the laser cut, especially where there are mating parts or joints.
c) edges are black, and not as smooth as cutting done by a CNC router so you may have some issues.
d) the burned edges may have a slight angle to them, ie they may not be exactly perpendicular to the face of the board. In some places this may matter, in others it won't.

Lastly, be prepared to make some trial pieces first - possibly a complete batch of parts - on the basis that it may take two or more attempts to get all the dimensions spot-on. For anything complicated the first attempt is unlikely to be perfect.

It's OK for simple boxes and you could cut the parts for an old-school dob this way, it would save a fair bit of mess at home.

[ozstockman]

Thanks for your contribution to this thread.

That's exactly what I am trying to offer. The only thing I cannot offer is "I will draw plans for you" service. Mostly because I am not an expert in drawing especially when it comes to plans in CAD software but also because it is kind of customer's specific thing which will depend on what each customer wants.

Material can be purchased by me for each order unless it something unique that I cannot find locally.

BTW, Ponoko offers some plans for free and one of them is for dobsonian mount (http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/8in-dobsonian-telescope--6827).

The license for its plans states that it is for personal use so I am not allowed to take that plan, cut the product out and sell it. However there are no restrictions for a person to download the plan and ask any business to cut the product for their personal use.

I have software that allows to make plans for simple boxes with joints. These plans can be done quite fast and it's almost automatic process.

re the straight angle of cutting, I have 3" lenses on my new 280W laser. It does almost perfect straight cut. Of course it is not exactly 90 degrees as it is almost impossible because of of light beam nature but it's quite close to it. My other 100W laser which uses 2" lenses are not as good with straight angle of cutting but it is normal for 2" lens comparing with 3" one.

[Satchmo]

Mike

I am doing a course on 2D CAD on Turbocad so this interests me .

I can understand that your cutting window is 1000 X 700 , so can you hold larger pieces of wood on the table than 1000 X 700 ? Would some kind of ancillary support table assist there ?

Mark

[ozstockman]

Hi Mark,

The actual bed size is 1300x900mm and there are no pass doors like on some lasers(my other less powerfull laser comes with it). However if your piece is no wider than 1300mm we can try to do longer than 900mm piece with the front cover open and supporting the hanging part of it outside of the laser machine. The only problem if your design is going through the whole length of material with no gaps. It may be very hard to align lines if it needs to be cut in two steps with material rotated 180 degrees after the first step.

[GrahamL]

I never knew lasers could cut ply !,, does it deal with voids ok?

[Wavytone]

Cuts plastics, fabric, metal, cardboard...

A water jet cutter can cut ply too...

[ozstockman]

even small 40W lasers can do 3mm thick plywood. A 100W laser can do up to 6-9mm and 280W power can do 18mm thick ply.
I cut shapes out of 16mm thick MDF every day and out of 18mm thick MDF a few times a week.
I have also tried to cut through steel and it cuts through too. However a manufacturer told me that this model has not been designed for cutting metals and they explained it as the beam reflected from metal can damage either mirrors or tubes. So I do not think I will be doing metals.

It can cuts through acrylic too, 25mm thick should not be a problem for 280W power.

[louie_the_fly]

I can do this if people are interested. My line of work is mechanical design. I can produce 3D models, dwf models (dumb models for use with a free viewer), shop drawings, laser cutting .dxf files, get rapid prototypes done, & so on. Basically, (nearly) any 2D & 3D CAD requirements can be accommodated. PM me if you want any further info.

Stew

[ozstockman]

Hi Stew,

that's great. If anybody asks me to do their drawing as well I will PM you.

[Wavytone]

Mike,

Are you able to lasercut dense foam rubber, up to 6-10mm thick like the stuff used for yoga mats, without harm to the laser (I'm thinking of the nasties in the smoke) ?

Reason I ask is that I'm thinking of making some neat liners for the Bunnings cases to use as eyepiece boxes, that will be more robust than the pluck&pick foam.

[troypiggo]

I have an engineering practice with plenty of options of CAD software - AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup even. If anyone needs drafting done, happy to help if the others can't or are too busy.

[ozstockman]

I think even my small 100W laser can do it. I tried it before with soft sponge foam and it worked.
If you want you can send me a small piece (15x15cm or slightly bigger) of the foam you have and I will see how it cuts. PM me and I will give you my postal address.

[DavidTrap]

Hi Mike,

Are you able to cut something out of 1mm thick acrylic?? I need a spacer/shim for my CCD camera.

I was hoping you might be able to do it out of aluminium, but I read above your laser isn't designed for metal.

Ta
DT

[ozstockman]

Hi David,

The thinnest acrylic I have seen is 2mm. Do you a have a 1mm thick piece big enough to cut your spacer?

I have some clear plastic laying around somewhere and I believe it is 1mm thick. It is plastic but it is not made of acrylic for sure.
I got it as a sample from my acrylic supplier and I was going to use it instead of glass in picture frames. Anyway I can try to find it but if you have your own material it will be quicker.

[DavidTrap]

Hi Mike,

I've thought about it some more and the spacer just needs to be a doughnut of plastic. I was thinking of something far more complex, but the doughnut will achieve the same result.

I'll just try the plastic from an ice-cream bucket first and see how that goes.

Ta
DT

[Poita]

I've been thinking of building a mini pinball cabinet.... hmm....

[zubinelgenubi]

Some things to think about when considering laser cutting plywood... If you're using anything other than marine ply, core gaps in the laminations can 'pop' when being cut by laser. When the laser hits a gap it heats up quickly & blows out a small hole. Not the end of the world, as small holes can be filled, but it's just extra work. Also the laser leaves a black edge which is almost impossible to completely sand out if you prefer the final appearance of timber rather than paint.

If you're using laser for something that requires critical tolerances in plywood (ie. telescopes) then definately consider shelling out the extra cash for good marine ply which has minimal core gaps, or think about using CNC routing instead. Routing has a few drawbacks itself (the main one being it can't cut sharp re-entrant corners) but produces a lovely clean edge, and can in some cases be cheaper than laser cutting, especially in thicker sheets (over 19mm). I'm building my 16" out of beautiful Austral marine ply & I sure don't want to paint over that (apart from sealing), so routing is the only way for me (apart from cutting it all by hand or course...). All my S/S mirror cell parts will go straight to the laser cutter though!