Laminate Setting on a VersaLaser

[Kevin Baker]

Hi Everyone -

While I was walking around Lowes today I grabbed a few of those Wilsonart Laminate samples... Engraving looks great, but I've been playing with the database setting in the ULS database to try and cut through it.. I'm getting nowhere.. anyone already figured this out?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Mike Mackenzie]

Kevin,

Can you be a little more specific what is the thickness? Is it plastic or wood? Let me know and I will get back to you with a possible setting.

[Kevin Baker]

Mike -

Can you tell I'm a newbie..

Okay.. Thickness is .042
Material - It's the stuff they use for countertops... laminate...

Hope this helps,
Kevin

[Mike Mackenzie]

Try the medium wood setting.

[Kevin Baker]

Mike -

Still not getting through..

Attached pics:

1 - My setting in ULS Control panel, I'm only changing the following fields in the Vector Cutting - Red Pen Section:
PPI
Shallow Cut Setting Speed
Deep Cut Setting Speed
2 - Front of Laminate
3 - Back of Laminate (you can see the laser just about to come through)

As I continue to slow the speed (since I'm already at 100% power), the front is getting more burnt.

:)
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Kevin

[Mike Mackenzie]

Kevin,

Believe it or not this is very tough stuff. Try this mask the front cut from the back use 100 power 2% speed 150 ppi image density 6 (only for the cut) see how that works.

[Kevin Baker]

Mike -

I see what you mean.. I did find several older posts on this stuff.. seems to be a problem for most.

I'll put this on the shelf for now, but thanks so much for your input.

Kevin

[Dave Marshall]

I've never had any trouble with the stuff. For my 60w laser, my settings for vector cutting are: Pwr: 100; Spd 3; PPI 250.

For raster engraving: Pwr: 30; Spd: 100; PPI 500

[Lee DeRaud]

Kevin,

Believe it or not this is very tough stuff. Try this mask the front cut from the back use 100 power 2% speed 150 ppi image density 6 (only for the cut) see how that works.Mike, I've got a sample Treavor cut with my 25W machine back before it was delivered: max power, min speed, lot of charring, generally looks like crap. He said it wouldn't cut at all without air assist.

Haven't tried it since.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Lee,

You are probably right I think if we read the msd sheet on this material we will find some very tough materials after all it has to be used in counter tops and you know how they get abused. I would be real curious how and what materials are used to produce this material.

[Phil Richardson]

The laminate used in counter tops is normally made up of paper sheets impregnated with a resin. There are some good videos on the net showing the process.
I have used some material from Laminex the company that makes the product in Australia (www.laminex.com.au (http://www.laminex.com.au))
From memory I think I used the hard wood setting with the cut setting at +50 as a first cut and then at -50 for a second pass cutting from the back of the material to keep the face as clean as possible. This was when I first got the machine several months ago and I was trialing different materials.

I have a Versalaser 3.50 40 watt.

On a related question my control pannel looks nothing like Kevins am I using an old driver?

Regards

Phil

[Kevin Baker]

Phil -

I sent you a PM on where I got the advanced driver. Thanks for the sugguestion, I'll give it a try.

Kevin