Project: Switching Beds for a Better Cut

Dilan Tuff-Overes
August 9, 2018

We laser lots of wood and acrylic... like seriously, it's hundreds if not thousands of sheets per year. This volume of throughput tends to cause the lasers to build up a lot of gunk and debris that needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. Besides being safer, it reduces the "flash" marks which are little black marks on the bottom of the material where the laser has burned through the material and reflected off the support table back to the underside of what was being cut.

Selecting the best surface used to support your lasered material comes down to a few options to which you need to ask:

  1. Is my project super heavy, or do I not care about table damage, scorching and just want a flat worksurface surface? (Use a flat metal tabletop)
  2. Are my parts small or risk being lost after being cut? (Use honeycomb)
  3. Do I want to minimize flash marks on my part? (Use slat)
  4. Am I doing the same thing over and over again and want best performance? (Use custom pin-table)

We've used all four methods at Solarbotics (five, if you include the rotary attachment for engraving ...pop bottles), with the honeycomb being the often used solution, but after our last laser cleanup, we've revisited the slat system.

Our latest designs are larger and better tabbed so they stay together. The slat system is ideal for these jobs, with its better managing of debris build-up, and vastly reduced flashing. Less support material below the cut means there's less to get in the way. For comparison, this is what a traditional honeycomb table looks like after a few months of cutting MDF (ug!). Look at that old and crufty thing... and the honeycomb too.

Now take a look at our new cleaned and re-slatted table! It's almost too clean...

As nice as it is, this bed of slats has no indexable edge for us to register our material against. Finding a common origin point on the bed crucial in production, so we used the laser to create our own registration edge!

Using the laser to laser parts for the laser... for better lasering...

Here are the results:

With this in place, we're ready for even higher quality laser cutting.

MORE POSTS

May 18, 2005
Survey! Prizes!

We have developed a quick little survey to help us find out a few things from our visitors, and we hope you won't mind giving us your thoughts. In exchange for a little bit of your time, we will be entering your name into a draw for our newest product up on deck -- the […]

March 28, 2012
Heat sinks, Screwdrivers and the Lessons...

You would think in these days it would be a simple task to source something you want to have made. After all, MAKE, the Internet and the world "getting smaller" would have you think that it'd be an easy task. Sometime it is, and sometimes it's like this! We've been to Hong Kong and China […]

June 24, 2008
Canada & Independence Day!

Solarbotics and HVW Tech will be closed Monday June 30th in lieu of Canada Day.We will be open again on Tuesday July 1st, and will be answering your calls, emails and general supplications - but will not be shipping as our couriers will not be picking up or delivering that day. Solarbotics and HVW Tech […]

October 31, 2011
DragonTail Robot Platform And A Dancing ...

Halloween is upon us, and it looks like everyone is testing out their costumes. For instance, the trees are dressing up (or down?) as Naked Trees, and all the leaves are dressing up as Multicoloured Dead Leaves. It's all very exciting. But we've keeping our heads down and churning out some great stuff to show […]

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.

cart