Thin material cutting

[James MacNab]

Hi all, I am new to lasering and my machine came with out any instructions. Can some one tell me if you need to put some thing under paper to protect the bed when cutting. Thank for now Jim

[Allan Wright]

You won't hurt the bed with the laser. You may leave some residue, but that can be cleaned easily.

If you're planning on doing a lot of cutting, you'll want to get a vector grid, so that flashback from the laser won't char the back of your parts.

[Richard Rumancik]

I don't know what your paper project looks like, but when cutting paper I would suspend it in air. By this I mean that I make a fixture out of something such as corrugated cardboard, acrylic, 1/8" matboard etc. It must be flat. If I am cutting holes in a sheet of 8.5 x 11 stock I would place the fixture material on the metal grid, secure it, and then cut clearance holes in the cardstock. I also mark a scribe line to tell me where to place the paper. For low volume production double thickness corrugated is great as long as you can get material that is flat.

The fixture can be created in the same Corel file as the design so it will self-align. Make the fixture, turn off that layer, then cut the parts.

It may be necessary to have a second layer of acrylic or matboard having the same clearance holes on top of the paper to keep it from moving. In this case, make this item BEFORE you make the main fixture. Or you could try low tack masking tape, but I prefer not to tape.

If you are making "parts" out of paper, then the perimeter is waste and you don't have to worry about damaging the edge with tape. You must be careful about parts flipping up or flying up the exhaust. Sometimes microtabs (.005" wide connection points) can be used to prevent this.

You still need a gap between the fixture and table. It needs to be elevated on something, even a simple wood frame, if you don't have a honeycomb table.

[James MacNab]

I don't know what your paper project looks like, but when cutting paper I would suspend it in air. By this I mean that I make a fixture out of something such as corrugated cardboard, acrylic, 1/8" matboard etc. It must be flat. If I am cutting holes in a sheet of 8.5 x 11 stock I would place the fixture material on the metal grid, secure it, and then cut clearance holes in the cardstock. I also mark a scribe line to tell me where to place the paper. For low volume production double thickness corrugated is great as long as you can get material that is flat.

The fixture can be created in the same Corel file as the design so it will self-align. Make the fixture, turn off that layer, then cut the parts.

It may be necessary to have a second layer of acrylic or matboard having the same clearance holes on top of the paper to keep it from moving. In this case, make this item BEFORE you make the main fixture. Or you could try low tack masking tape, but I prefer not to tape.

If you are making "parts" out of paper, then the perimeter is waste and you don't have to worry about damaging the edge with tape. You must be careful about parts flipping up or flying up the exhaust. Sometimes microtabs (.005" wide connection points) can be used to prevent this.

You still need a gap between the fixture and table. It needs to be elevated on something, even a simple wood frame, if you don't have a honeycomb table.

I just wanted to thank everyone for the help. When you are new to the game it is great to get all the help you can.
Jim