Thick shell cutting .05 Alabam

[Anthony Scira]

I have been messing around with the thin stuff about.01 thickness. But I need to step up to a thicker .05 for inlay into a fretboard.

The major resource said it can be cut but with mixed results. Considering its 130 bucks for a 5x9" sheet any tips are welcome.

Just from what little experience I have I would think multiple passes and possibly a mask to prevent any charring. Maybe even a wet toewl to keep things cool.


Oh yeah here is the reply I got from the Duke:

"Thanks for the enquiry. Laser cutting only works cleanly on shell
under
about .015" in thickness; a laser cut in thicker shell becomes visibly
burnt-looking, crumbly, and rough regardless of what type or strength
laser
is used. This is probably due to the 3 - 4% moisture content in the
shell,
and when this water trapped at a molecular level is heated by the laser
it
expands and "blows out" the sides of the cut. Solid shell is the worst
of
course, so laminates behave much better because none of the individual
layers are over .010".

But there has to be a way to do it !

[Bruce Volden]

I have inlayed lots of "laminate" shell also but not the "thicker" stuff. I would take the mfg'rs statement seriously. But the evil side of me says to go for it, and I would go thusly. 1- try not to have too elaborate of an inlay (avoid sharp corners!) 2-cut shell in several passes instead of trying to "punch through" in 1 pass. 3-I don't think I would mask the shell. 4-Have a spare sheet on hand. 5- If things failed, fall back to the laminate and use a couple 'o layers +????

Bruce

[Anthony Scira]

Since one place has a minimum order of 300 dollars I decided to buy a smaller piece from a more expensive place. 45 bucks for a 3x5 piece. I hope it works !

I will try to do multiple passes. I think I will even try and use a damp paper towel to keep the shell cool.

I should have the shell by the weekend and will post the results after I try it !

But again any other tips would be more than welcome !

[Scott Challoner]

I haven't tried shell laminates yet but when I worked in the electronics industry, we would have lots of outgassing issues if the raw PCBs sat around too long and absorbed moisture. The solution was to bake them. I know I wouldn't want to try it on $130 worth of material, but if you can get a few scraps, it may be worth a try to bake them. You need to be above the boiling point. A typical temp was 125C which is about 255F. For a PCB, the minimum time was 4 hours with a maximum of 48 hours. Higher temps will reduce the time.

Good luck

[James Stokes]

I have cut it with my 100 watt laser. What seemed to work the best was using 3 passes to cut. I used 100 power 50 speed 5000 frequency. If I tried to cut slow it melted pretty badly. I also mirrowed the image and cut from the back.

[Mike Null]

Here's a link to an older thread which might be helpful.

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61759&highlight=abalone