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Don Corbeil
04-08-2015, 4:42 PM
So I'm cutting corian (1/4" thick) for the first time, and I am finding that it is requiring 95 power and .07 speed @ 1000ppi to get through cleanly. This is a lot slower speed than I would have thought for 1/4". I also have air assist on, which seems to be causing some minor flaming, but no burning. Do these settings seem to be consistent with what others have found for cutting through this material? Should I keep air assist off? The residue that comes off the lasered area is super fine, and may be what is igniting.

Bill George
04-08-2015, 4:52 PM
So I'm cutting corian (1/4" thick) for the first time, and I am finding that it is requiring 95 power and .07 speed @ 1000ppi to get through cleanly. This is a lot slower speed than I would have thought for 1/4". I also have air assist on, which seems to be causing some minor flaming, but no burning. Do these settings seem to be consistent with what others have found for cutting through this material? Should I keep air assist off? The residue that comes off the lasered area is super fine, and may be what is igniting.

I always thought the air helped to keep the flaming down. You have an 80 watt machine, I guess that tells me my 50-60 watt machine would get no place! You must need curves or something you can't do with a carbide tipped blade.
That dust is abrasive, be sure to wipe down the inside when your done.

Mark Sipes
04-08-2015, 4:54 PM
So I'm cutting corian (1/4" thick) for the first time, and I am finding that it is requiring 95 power and .07 speed @ 1000ppi to get through cleanly. This is a lot slower speed than I would have thought for 1/4". I also have air assist on, which seems to be causing some minor flaming, but no burning. Do these settings seem to be consistent with what others have found for cutting through this material? Should I keep air assist off? The residue that comes off the lasered area is super fine, and may be what is igniting.


I cut 1/2" on the table saw and lightly sand. Much faster. Are you cutting shapes or just straight lines?

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Ross Moshinsky
04-08-2015, 5:09 PM
Corian can be laser cut, but typically you want 100's of watts. To be honest, I think laser engraving Corian is vastly overrated. I do it for logos but everything else I throw on the CNC and use a v-groove bit.

Don Corbeil
04-08-2015, 5:50 PM
Hey, thanks for the replies.
I'm practicing with corian to see what I can actually do with it. I just started out by cutting out a focus tool for my new 3" lens. I was also contemplating doing some intricate patterns for a trivet, but had no idea it would take this much power and so little speed. I think a scroll saw or band saw would be more efficient, but I would lose some of that precision. The speed is so slow when lasering that I was concerned about the piece igniting. However, when I pulled the piece out, it was very clean, no charring at all.

Bill, I am definitely cleaning the abundance of fine powder residue out of the work area.

Mark Sipes
04-08-2015, 6:01 PM
Corian can be laser cut, but typically you want 100's of watts. To be honest, I think laser engraving Corian is vastly overrated. I do it for logos but everything else I throw on the CNC and use a v-groove bit.


The lighter color material can be sublimated......



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Chuck Stone
04-10-2015, 8:56 AM
Corian is tough to cut with the laser. The acrylic part is ok, but
it has a high mineral content. (aluminum hydroxide)

Bill George
04-10-2015, 10:02 AM
As I understand simplified, its just rock particles bonded together with acrylic. So they recommend carbide tipped saws for cutting. My very limited experience with it cuts fine on table saw, slow and with a carbide tipped blade. Engraves with a lot of power and slow, and color fill is spray paint and going over with orbital 5 inch sander with 220 grit sandpaper. Looking forward to learning more about it.

Mike Null
04-10-2015, 11:11 AM
I don't think you'll ever be happy with cutting Corian with the laser. As others have said, wood working tools are much more efficient. I use a table saw and a router.

If you need 1/4" acrylic check with suppliers such as Johnson Plastics or Delvies to see if they have cast acrylic in the colors you need. Cuts like butter on the laser.

Always use air assist when cutting.

Don Corbeil
04-10-2015, 12:53 PM
I don't think you'll ever be happy with cutting Corian with the laser. As others have said, wood working tools are much more efficient. I use a table saw and a router.

If you need 1/4" acrylic check with suppliers such as Johnson Plastics or Delvies to see if they have cast acrylic in the colors you need. Cuts like butter on the laser.

Always use air assist when cutting.

Yes, for the cutting part, it was not at all a comfortable process putting almost all my 80 watts into a glacially slow cut. The fireworks show it produced made me uneasy. Next to the flaming, I was also seeing a bunch of projectile sparks (probably the aluminum h) coming off the cut. I think the engraving part of it actually went OK, which can be done at faster speeds, but it still produces a great deal of fine powder, which appears to be pretty abrasive. I might have an older scroll saw coming my way soon, so that may be the ticket for cutting the stuff. I happen to have a good supply of free corian nearby, from a counter top installer, so I wanted to see what was possible.

Chuck Stone
04-10-2015, 11:35 PM
I was also seeing a bunch of projectile sparks (probably the aluminum h) coming off the cut. I think the engraving part of it actually went OK, which can be done at faster speeds, but it still produces a great deal of fine powder, which appears to be pretty abrasive.

closely related to aluminum oxide.

Wilbur Harris
04-12-2015, 4:13 PM
Corian engraves OK on a laser but you need to cut it on something else. I sanded down a sample square to a thickness I could cut (took a while) and cut a fairly intricate piece. It looked very well but fell to pieces when I picked it up and began handling it. I'm talking a pretty fine piece but was enough to learn not to use Corian for anything close to that.

I've got a bunch of Corian sample squares if anybody needs some - big bunch if I remember.

Scott Shepherd
04-13-2015, 10:16 AM
You have to be really carefully vectoring solid surface materials. I watched a lens get wiped out from someone trying to vector cut some that wasn't a solid color. The "sparks" coming up would be a massive red flag. Those sparks will micro pit the lens. Be very careful doing it. If you have to do it, make sure there are not sparks, which might mean fast and light cuts, multiple passes.

Keith Outten
04-13-2015, 12:20 PM
If you use a shop air compressor you can bump up the pressure and make the sparks curve away from the lens to protect it from being damaged. The small internal compressor that my Trotec has doesn't produce enough air to do it but a large shop compressor works fine, at least it did on my Epilog Legend years ago.
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Scott Shepherd
04-13-2015, 1:07 PM
The piece I saw cut that ruined the lens was one of the one's that looked like granite. It actually looked like a metal cutting laser was running when it was running. I've never, to this day, ever seen anything look that bad, that wrong, or that dangerous in the laser.

Glen Monaghan
04-13-2015, 7:51 PM
I cut some magnetic sheet once, and it spewed forth a disturbing shower of sparks, along with copious black smoke and a lot of fine black dust. That stuff is never going into my machine again...