What is the thickest wood you have cut?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I tried searching the forum for this, but maybe I'm not using the right search terms.

Playing around with some scrap wood to see just how thick the laser can cut -- Not what the manual says it can cut! While it doesn't have to be a perfect cut, what is the thickest you have been able to cut and what type of wood was it? Speed is not an issue, nor the fact that other equipment can work better. Just playing around to see what wood the laser is capable of cutting.

Here's what I have done, but I'm sure I could do thicker. I just don't have thicker wood on hand to play with.

45-watt Epilog Mini

1 pass
1/4" MDF 8/100/500
1/2" Poplar 4/100/500
1/2" Oak 3/100/500

2 passes
1/2" Alder 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up
1/2" Beech 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up

3 passes
1/2" Cherry 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up, (3) 5 clicks up
1/2" Lyptus 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up, (3) 5 clicks up
1/2" Walnut 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up, (3) 5 clicks up
1/2" Maple 7/100/500 (1) 10 clicks up, (2) 5 clicks up, (3) 5 clicks up

failed attempts
1/2" Mahogany 4 passes 7/100/500 and still not enough to cut through clean
1/2" MDF - forget it. Nothing but a charred mess.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Bueller? .... Bueller? ..... Bueller? ...... Anyone?

[Lee DeRaud]

I haven't done anything thicker than 1/4", mainly because (1) I've got better tools for that and (2) the projects I use the laser for work better with thinner stock anyway. (Not to mention that my laser is only 25W.)

That said, I find it odd that your settings for maple are the same as for cherry and walnut: I almost always need 20%-25% more power to get through maple. And oak is typically even harder to cut than maple at the thicknesses I use.

Go figure.

[Chuck Stone]

Lee, I think a lot of that might be the local source and what they're buying. I have to test
maple to see how it is going to work. Sometimes it is fairly solid, other times the laser goes
right through it (much more than I want) and this can happen within the same piece. No
telling from the color, although generally speaking the whiter the wood (less noticeable
grain) the more consistently it wlll cut and the less resin it will leave behind. Nothing worse
than planning out your Sunday with 100 cut, turned, tubed and sanded pen blanks.. only to
find out that the laser is going to eat through the blank on one side while barely touching
the other.

[Joe Pelonio]

I did 3/4" fir on my Epilog 45 watt one time. Took 4 passes and 2 depth adjustments, and the edge was pretty ugly
but it did work. Much easier to glue up 3 layers of 1/4".

[Liesl Dexheimer]

So far... 1/4" birch on my Epilog Mini 24 (35 watt)

[Mike Null]

I limit myself to 1/4" as anything thicker just doesn't produce acceptable results.

[Neil Pabia]

3/4" maple with 3 passes, don't remember the settings, found my bandsaw and table saws did a better, quicker job. The burning with the tablesaw wasn't too bad either but put on a new blade anyways.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

That said, I find it odd that your settings for maple are the same as for cherry and walnut: I almost always need 20%-25% more power to get through maple. And oak is typically even harder to cut than maple at the thicknesses I use.

I dug out my scrap cuts and the alder & beech are by far the best looking edges. I probably did this test about a year or more ago, so I only have my settings notes and the scraps to look at. If it were not for my notes, looking at the edges, I would not know how many passes I made. It looks like the maple had a slight bit at the very bottom that did not cut completely through a small section, so ideally it could have had a different setting then the cherry & walnut. At the time, I was not perfecting the power/speed, but merely seeing if it could cut. If I had to use any of the 1/2" cuts for production purposes on the laser, even though all the wood has really dark, almost black edges, the alder is the one I think looks the best.

Once again, this was merely to test to see what the laser was capable of cutting along with depth adjustments. There is no doubt about it there are better/other tools to accomplish cutting thick wood, but last I heard, it's a good thing to experiment and learn what the laser can do. I believe it was 5-6 months ago someone with a 30 watt laser cut 1.5" thick acrylic while experimenting....

[Chuck Stone]

I believe it was 5-6 months ago someone with a 30 watt laser cut 1.5" thick acrylic while experimenting....

Did they lose a zero or misplace a decimal point?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Found it. Here's the link to that post.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...reasonably-cut

[will bohn]

I have cut 2.25 inch thick Oak with great results. But then again my big laser is a PRC with 2200 Watts...LOL

[Chuck Stone]

Found it. Here's the link to that post.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...reasonably-cut

Ah.. that one. OK. When people say 'cut' I tend to think of one pass.

[Mike Mackenzie]

When I was first playing with our 120 watt we sucessfully cut in one pass 1.375 poplar. I cut 1/2 maple in one pass easily &P3080656.jpg I have cut through a 2x4 but thats not something I would do again.

[Don Corbeil]

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I read it before cutting a rather intricate pattern in 1/2" poplar.
I'm happy to say it went very well, and it cut easily through the poplar in 1 pass. I cut this at 95p and 0.28s on my 300. I've noticed that I have to slow the speed way down when the machine is cutting more intricate patterns.
If I don't, I find I have corners and angles that don't cut clean through. I thought I'd share my result with the creek. It's a register cover for a home remodel I'm doing. I'm now going to router the edges and find a suitable finish to match existing trim.

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