I’ve used a 30w CO2 laser at the school where I used to teach. I was able to both raster engrave and vector cut with one pass that was dependent on the line width. 0 width was cut and >0 was engrave. IS that possible with the SO?
I tried using the 200mW laser to raster some lettering and vector cut from an SVG and JPG. That laser is underpowered for the application. Is the 1600mW laser capable of cutting 1/8" 2 color acrylic sheet in 1 or maybe 2 passes?
https://support.snapmaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019025954-The-Definitive-Guide-to-Laser-Engraving-and-Cutting-with-the-Snapmaker
i have never tried so…
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Cutting acrylic is typically best achieved with relatively slow speed and high power. This laser cutting process allows the laser beam to melt the edges of the acrylic and essentially produce a flame-polished edge.
I ended up lasering the lettering and CNC’ing the outline. It came out very nice. I’m using black on white .060" thick sheet. The power level needed was very low (20%) with the 1600mW laser. I ran combos from 90% to 10% in 10% increments with speeds from 3000 to 500 in 500mm/min increments. There were close competition her and there where I hit good combos but the cleanest, clearest lettering with 0 smoke trails was 20/500. I even went down to 100mm/min from 500 in increments of 100 yet 20%/500mm/min was still the winner. So if you buy that plastic from Amazon and have a 1600mW laser then you know what combo works best.
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