I’m trying to laser cut fabric into a simple shape, prototyping on both acrylic felt and printed cotton.
I have done some trial and error myself and before finding suggested settings in Laser - Fabric/clothes? - #4 by brent113 . When set in B&W and set to various power (60+%) and work speed (100. -200%) settings, I am still unable to cut or even engrave either of my fabric swatches.
Suggested settings would be most welcome.
i have used the laser to cut woolfelt. To get through 5 mm dense woolfelt I use a speed around 120 on 100% and run it twice with a depth of 1,5 mm. I got better results running it twice instead of going slower. It gives black edges and smells bad. But had great results. Not sure how it will cut acrylics. I sometimes glue two felts together but i cannot cut through the thin layer of glue???
I don’t think the SM is powerful enough to cut fabric. At least not well and not without a lot of charring. That also means that there’s very good chance of it catching fire. (The only time I"ve ever had a small fire was doing fabric tests) So if you do any work with fabric, I would not leave it unattended.
As far as what to try for settings. You should be using vector, not b&w. That way it will follow the cutting path, not scan across the image.
Use 100% power. Faster work speed = less charring. So I’d suggest better off doing a lot of fast passes than one or two slow ones.
Make sure you have plenty of ventilation. Hopefully you’re venting to the outdoors.
Also make sure you know what the material is and if it’s safe to use laser on. NEVER use laser on PVC or vinyl. It releases nasty stuff!
-S