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Stuart Orrell
03-26-2010, 11:51 AM
Hi,
I've been asked to cu some thin ABS into petal shapes - aroubd 70mm.

I haven't cut ABS before and was wondering if anyone has advice to offer regarding this - do's don'ts, etc.

Gary Hair
03-26-2010, 2:54 PM
Abs doesn't cut as well as acrylic but it does work fine. Use a vector cutting table/grid, it leaves a lot of residue behind - make sure you clean it up asap with dna or it's harder to clean later.

Oh, it stinks pretty bad. Not as bad as rubber stamp material, but pretty close. Even the cut pieces have quite an odor. Simple green will get rid of the residue and smell from the pieces.

Gary

Joe Pelonio
03-26-2010, 2:57 PM
You consider 70mm thin? That's like 2-3/4". Is that laser or CNC? I'd recommend CNC if you can.

I have cut up to 1/4" on the laser and it's definitely a chore. I put transfer tape on it and mist it with water. It still takes more than one pass. The 1/8" is a lot better, and the 1/16" cuts nicely, though any thickness does smell bad. Most of what I have cut is the pebble finish (one side) black.

Gary Hair
03-26-2010, 3:01 PM
You consider 70mm thin?

I assumed he meant they were about 70mm in diameter not thickness. If 70mm thick, rotsaruck...

Viktor Voroncov
03-27-2010, 2:35 AM
Any comments about Chinese plastics for laser engraving? We have a lot of proposals from different manufacturers, all of them mentioned that their plastics made from ABS and acrylic, safe for laser. When we have got samples and made tests, we saw that engraving pretty good, but cutting quality is not acceptable, and main problem is strong PVC smell after cutting :(

Stuart Orrell
03-27-2010, 3:09 AM
Thanks for your comments. Sorry if I wasn't clear about size and for the smelling mistakes.

The petal would be 70mm footprint (dia.) and the material is 1mm thick.

Jerry Beltramo
03-27-2010, 7:29 AM
We cut a lot of ABS - 1/4" stock material, one pass. We originally purchased our laser to assist in manufacturing a woodworking product. We began using the vector table but have gone to a water bath set up. We obtained a large cookie sheet and filled it with water. We placed spacers to keep the ABS about 1/4" above the water. This eliminated the flame up and also reduces the smell because of the build up of cut ABS on the vector table. We also by passed the air assist and hook our compressor up directly using a regulator, setting it at about 20 - 25 psi which eliminated the flame up almost completely. It took us awhile to perfect this process but is really works great for ABS cutting.

Viktor Voroncov
03-27-2010, 7:38 AM
Jerry, thank's for sharing your advice - will try to realize your ideas on my laser next week :)

Stuart Orrell
03-28-2010, 3:35 AM
Thanks to all for your advice.

I like the sound of the water bath.....Great idea! I haden't thougth of that one. I'm assuming that the beam is too weak at that distance to cause any steaming....I should do some experimens with this.

Thanks again

Jerry Beltramo
03-28-2010, 6:51 AM
You will get a little steam that is why you need to do a couple of test runs for water level. We have found that about 1/4" below the ABS will not leave any water residue. The impurities in the water could leave a little white film. We have found that this is minimual compared to the flame up and smell from burning residue left on the vector grid. If you are doing a lot of cutting changing the water once in awhile is also recommend.