Cutting Mahogany

[John Pletcher]

I have been cutting 3/8" thick hardwoods like cherry, walnut and hard maple for quite sometime very easily in single pass. I recently had an application where I wanted to use mahogany for contrast. I specified Mahogany from Central America instead of Africa since its density is similar to the wood I typically work with. I was surprised it took 4 passes to completely cut through, which of course results in a fairly think layer of charring. My only guess with mahogany like many of the other tropical wood species possess unique characteristics. In this case I'm thinking its preventing the energy from the laser from being absorbed adequately. Has anyone else experienced this and if so did you find away to cut the through in fewer passes.....preferably one. Like all the woods I work with, they are kiln dried to approximately 7%. I have a 50 watt Helix from Epilog.

I've attached a picture of the completed piece, luckily the raised maple contrast covers the seam between the walnut and mahogany so the "char" is hidden in this instance. If I did the attachment procedure correctly it should appear.

John
Iron Horse Engraving

[AL Ursich]

Don't know the answer but THAT is impressive...

AL

[Gary Hair]

I tried cutting 1/8" ebony with my 30 watt laser and had similar results as you did. I ended up using my cnc router instead. Oh, and I agree with Al, that's an impressive piece!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Higher pressure air assist John, Carbon sucks up lasing radiation like a sponge does water. Multiple cuts often follow the diminishing returns model, more cuts = more carbon = more cuts required.

That's a very nice piece of work though,VERY impressive :)

best wishes

Dave

[John Pletcher]

Thank you all for your feedback. This the 1st time I've worked with mahogany. I'll try it again with higher air assist pressure. I believe I was running 5 psi, but can go has high as 30 psi. I'll try that before trying slower feedspeed and or higher frequency, which typically results in more charring. The other option is to use cherry instead of mahogany, but I do like the deep red mahogany has. Thanks again for the suggestions.

John

[Dee Gallo]

John, I wish I had an answer for you but all I can say is: that is one spectacular piece, well done!

[Frank Corker]

Firstly and as others have said, great piece of work, looks a treat. Regarding the burning, severe charring quite often caused be the frequency being higher than 500.

[Joe Pelonio]

very nice piece.

I tried to do some custom dash work for a guys classic car using an exotic mahogany a few years ago, and it would simply burn an char, it would not cut no matter what I tried, not even part way.