Mother of Pearl

[Stanley Waldrup]

My Brother as me today if the co2 lasers can cut Mother of pearl Sheet.
He is wanting to make a bango and needed some cut down. Has anyone worked with this material?
Thanks
Stanley

[Mike Null]

Stanley

I have cut abalone with reasonable success. I would guess that they're similar materials.

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Stanley;
MOP is very tough to cut- have tried it a very low speed with a 60 watt laser with poor success. Try ivory or some of the thin shell laminates.
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Wil Lambert]

Hi Stanley;
MOP is very tough to cut- have tried it a very low speed with a 60 watt laser with poor success. Try ivory or some of the thin shell laminates.
Best regards;
George
LaserArts


I've actually have had good luck cutting MOP sheets of Abalone and Mother of Pearl. We cut it for a guitar maker all the time. I will have to look up my setting. The settings took some trial and error but once we found them it works well.

Wil

[Mike Null]

For what it's worth the abalone is very expensive and I vectored it several times at lower power so as not to overheat it and cause it to fracture. You may be able to work faster but I would do it the same way next time.

[Vicky Orsini]

I, too, have done MOP inlays into guitar heads. I got my MOP sheets from a supplier on E-Bay - InlayUSA.

[Dave Fifield]

Me too. I have cut many MOP and Abalone pieces (very thin stuff only) very successfully. I found the black backed stuff from Inlay USA was the easiest to use - it held together well. I do have a fairly high breakage rate on finished pieces though - you just have to plan for it when you order the material.

BTW, it stinks when you cut it, so make sure your exhaust is on full blast!

Cheers,