Settings to Vector Cut Nylon

[Tracey Bakewell]

Just for fun, I'm betting my husband I can cut nicer circles in my horse's nylon halter than him using his forge with a hot tool (he's a farrier). So, just in case anyone's tried this experiment, care to help me determine what the settings would be so I don't completely melt it :D? The nylon is is just under 1/4" thick. I have a 50 watt universal laser.

[Tracey Bakewell]

Ok, all finished! Was pretty easy and did look great! Here's what I came up with...

Power: 100
Speed: 2.2
PPI: 1000
DPI: Max

I'm thinking of offering this as a service to my local tack shops!

[Tracey Bakewell]

Oh, I had to run it twice and be standing at the ready with something to punch the hole through because the nylon would just cool fairly quickly and glue itself back to the hole.

[Bill Cunningham]

Was this for solid nylon or nylon webbing and having it seal the edges too?

[Mike Null]

Tracey

Did you take any pictures?

[Tracey Bakewell]

For inquiring minds...

Here are 3 pics... 1 is of the entire halter, the other is of my husband's work, he added the 2 holes furthest to the right, and the 3rd is of my work, I added the 2 holes furthest to the right. The engraver did seal the inside edges so it looks great! Next time, I'll just make the holes a little smaller so they're not larger than the ones that came stock on the halter.

[Mark Winlund]

Did hubby point out that his method uses a nail and a cigarette lighter, and yours requires $20k worth of equipment?

Mark

[Tracey Bakewell]

Ha! :D

He laughs because it takes me forever to line everything up and make everything just perfect! Whereas it took him 2 seconds!

He's happy to see our investment put to good use!;)

[Mike Mackenzie]

Tracy,

The only thing I would do is to lower the PPI to around 300 this may help with the melting and you may just be able to do it in one pass.

[Tracey Bakewell]

Good idea Mike! I'll give that a shot next round!