how strong tube for cutting 25mm plywood

[Martin Safranek]

Hello,

how stronge tube is needed for cutting plywood 25 mm ? Is 200w enought ?

Thank you.

Martin

[Mike Lysov]

Cutting thick plywood with a laser is a nightmare.
I had a lot of problems just a few days ago cutting 9mm marine plywood with 280W. I had to cut it in two passes( at about 700mm/m first and about 1000mm/m for the second pass). The quality of edge is very poor. It looks like a sandwich and it is very bad charred. I have never had problems cutting most hardwood up to 19mm and MDF up to 18mm with 280W power. Speed is about 400-500mm/m for 18-19mm thick MDF and hardwood.

I do not think you will be able to find any tube that can do 25mm thick plywood. There will be at least two problems
1) based on my experience to cut 25mm plywood I guess you would need at least 400W power. It will cost you a fortune.
2)depth of field. With 3" focal length it is only about 6-7mm. If you use the same 3" lens on 25mm thick material the edge will never be straight(it is far away from straight on 16mm) and it will be very noticeable. Plus you will see huge mismatch of start and end point at the back of material. 4" lens will be slightly better but for 25mm there will be the same problems and a huge drop in cutting speed. Never tried 5" but it is still not even close to make 25mm thick material with a straight edge.

[Mary Lee]

Hi ,I once cut MDF 14mm thickness by 150W tube with quite slow speed and very big air. Cutting side is black enough you know.
Why don't you use a cnc router ? no black cutting side,no smoke,much fast than laser machine...

200W or power like this can be used for cutting metal,don't you think it is not worth to let it cutting wood ?

Regards,
Mary

[John Bion]

Hi Martin,
This is a cnc router job, not a laser job. The router will give clean, vertical edges with little finishing required, all at a decent speed. If you would like to engrave details onto the plywood you could use either your router or your laser, depending on requirements.
Kind Regards, John

[Mary Lee]

;) haha,we thought an same idea .
Regards,
Mary

[Martin Safranek]

Thank to all for comments. Reason why a ask is that i have some requests from cabinet makers about cutting kitchen desk a doors. Thay told me that cnc isnt able to make sharp right angle .... Id like in end of year buy bigger and stronger machine ... this is reason why i ask about it.

Martin

[Guy Hilliard]

CNC routers cannot cut sharp "inside" corners because of the diameter of the bit. The diameter of the laser is much smaller but has other issues. If you want to cut sharp inside corners with no burning you need to use a water jet. This technology also has its own issues.

[Chuck Stone]

If you're thinking of cutting thick plywood (which is thinner sheets laminated together) is
there a reason you couldn't cut thinner sheets and then glue them together after cutting?
More work and cutting time, but it should get you what you're looking for.

[Kev Williams]

If you're patient, you can set up your laser to do a "flip" 2-pass cut-- cut 1/2 way thru, turn the wood over, finish the cut on the other side. I used to do 3/4" wood in my 40w LS900 this way. It can be a pain to get the cuts to align, but it can be done...

[Nick Mauer]

We are able to successfully cut through 30mm Bamboo panels with our 400-watt SP1500, equipped with a 5" lens. Full power, 3-5 cm/sec. We haven't needed to cut anything thicker yet, so I'm not sure where the lens/power maxes out, thickness-wise.

We have a 2.5" lens that we use for almost everything else. It cuts through 16mm and 20mm Bamboo like it's butter, but really chars up the bottom of the cut with 30mm stock. 3/4" thick hardwood plywood cuts even easier.

[Nathan Shaffer]

A water jet would cut right through it. And you then could branch out in to other materials such has metal or rock.

[Martin Safranek]

I expect that water jet is much more expensive than co2 laser. I dont have any experience about it... Its reason why i speek about laser...

[David Somers]

Heck with a CO2 laser....I want a 5 axis water jet cutter with a 149kw, 200HP 90,000psi pump. Yeah boy howdy woohooooo!

DS

[John Bion]

Hi Martin,

"I expect that water jet is much more expensive than co2 laser. I dont have any experience about it... Its reason why i speek about laser...”

If your budget is pushed, you will not be doing this with a laser. The previous poster who cuts thick bamboo with a laser is using a machine that will cost huge $$$$$, not your average CO2. Even with this machine, something like a Baltic Birch plywood at 25mm, in my opinion, would be pushing things too far - The work will be unlikely to have a good edge and will be Very Slow.
Between a CNC router and some other woodwork machinery, the work you speak of would be simple (without having seen actual requirements). I honestly do not think that a Co2 laser is the right tool for this.
I would recommend visiting some other sawmillcreek forums, there will be a lot of collected wisdom you could draw from for making cabinets etc.
Kind regards,
John

[Nick Mauer]

Hi Martin,

"I expect that water jet is much more expensive than co2 laser. I dont have any experience about it... Its reason why i speek about laser...”

If your budget is pushed, you will not be doing this with a laser. The previous poster who cuts thick bamboo with a laser is using a machine that will cost huge $$$$$, not your average CO2. Even with this machine, something like a Baltic Birch plywood at 25mm, in my opinion, would be pushing things too far - The work will be unlikely to have a good edge and will be Very Slow.
Between a CNC router and some other woodwork machinery, the work you speak of would be simple (without having seen actual requirements). I honestly do not think that a Co2 laser is the right tool for this.
I would recommend visiting some other sawmillcreek forums, there will be a lot of collected wisdom you could draw from for making cabinets etc.
Kind regards,
John

The up front costs for Helga (our laser beast) and her accessories were a bit steep, but we've been more than pleased with the results we've been getting.

Can't compare the edge quality to that of a CNC milled piece, of course. But a laser cut piece, with 1/8-1/4" larger offset margins, run thru a router table afterwards is a pretty quick process that results in a clean edge.

Equipped with a 2.5" lens, our laser can cut 3/4" stock at about 6cm/sec. Equipped with a 5" lens, we can cut 30mm or 1.25" stock at around 2-3cm/sec.

[Ross Moshinsky]

People often obsess over the radius of the bit on a CNC router but if you do a cleanup pass with a 1/8" bit, more often than not, that 1/16" radius is fine.