I Thought This Was a Great Idear UNTILL!!!!!

[sal shepherd]

I have been making plexi plates an was having problems with needed pieces falling through vector table. I thought I would fix the problem by putting white card stock in table bottom. All was going well till I got to vectoring. Trying to use up scrap I some times miss my mark. while my machine was cutting I started to smell something burning. The moral of the story is the laser keeps working far pass the focual point. I was lucky that I only had my back to it. I will post pictures later.

[Frank Corker]

Jeepers Sal, you were lucky it didn't go on fire. Truth is the beam goes even further than you can imagine. It's a little like putting a magnifying glass on your hand and letting the sun shine through, I know from early experimentation as a child that you can get burned a long way down from the focal point even on that.

[Joe Pelonio]

What sort of vector grid do you have? My old school Epilog removeable is about 2" thick, honeycomb on top and solid tray below. Yes, tiny parts may fall in, just this morning a a/2" number 1 from ADA material fell through, but I have only to tip it over and shake and it falls right out. Perhaps you could make something similar to use for cutting small stuff.

[sal shepherd]

Joe, It is about .75 " thick. Yea I was thinking Duct tope on bottom side of grid. When I cut the different pieces of plex they line up in same spot every time. why would the kerf change? I cleaned the mirrors an lens