Join us on Wednesday, March 3 at noon Pacific for the Putting Lasers to Work Hack Chat with Jonathan Schwartz!
Laser cutting equipment runs the gamut in terms of cost, with low-end, almost disposable units that can be had for a song to high-power fiber lasers that only big businesses can afford. But the market has changed dramatically over the years, and there’s now a sweet-spot of affordable laser cutters that can really do some work. And while plenty of hobbyists have taken the plunge and added such a laser cutter to their shops, still others have looked at these versatile tools and realized that a business can be built around them.
For the next Hack Chat, we’ll be sitting down with Jonathan Schwartz. He started with laser cutters at his maker space, and quickly became the “laser guy” everyone turned to for answers. With about 10 years of experience, Jon set up American Laser Cutter in Los Angeles, to provide bespoke laser engraving and cutting services. He has built a business around mid-range laser cutters, and he’s ready to share what he’s learned. Join us as we talk about the machines, the materials, and the services that are part of a laser cutting business, and find out some of the tricks of the laser-jockey’s trade.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, March 3 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a handy time zone converter.
Click that speech bubble to the right, and you’ll be taken directly to the Hack Chat group on Hackaday.io. You don’t have to wait until Wednesday; join whenever you want and you can see what the community is talking about.
Materials thicker than say ~1.5 mm, ~1/16″ are a “solved problem” for me, I’ve got saws, lots of saws, and 2 routers. What would interest me in a laser cutter is cheap obtanium parts, only for cutting materials below this threshold, non-ferrous metals, plastics and wood, maybe steel up to 0.5mm, just for getting clean, distortion free, burr free cuts, which is difficult on thin materials. So super uninterested in a $2000+ rig just for cutting the 3/4″ ply my $30 sabre saw can handle.
Apart from anything metal (including your 0.5mm steel) a simple K40 China Laser can do what you want.
I cut 0.1mm Brass on a 60W Trotec…
Works Okay if you Paint the Brass Black in advance and use ‘CUT’ not engrave
You forgot the /s at the end of your post..
A laser can be a good solution for thicker materials as well, I would like to see you do some intricate shapes and curves with your saw collection, not that it can’t be done, but a laser is faster and more accurate than anything you can do by hand.
And as a bonus you can do engraving with it.
And even if your routers are CNC-ed there are shapes you just cannot make on a router (as long as you stick to the 2D plane)
“I see your Schwartz is as big as mine!”
Now let’s see how well you handle it.