Can dried pasta be laser cut?

The word from Dan has always been that using a Glowforge for food is fine as long as that Glowforge is only used for food. I.E. Don’t cut acrylic and pasta in the same machine.
Though I may choose to forget about that from time to time.

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I bet it would cut just fine. After all, it can cut bone.

I also think that if you don’t use the same honeycomb for food and you wipe things down then it should be fine.

I wouldn’t set it on the same thing I set bone on BTW.

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Yes, there is really no reason this can’t be done, different plate and clean chamber. maybe some GF staff can chime in. - Rich

That would be nice, but I think they will play it safe on this one.

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Gingerbread

If I worked for GF, thats how I’d play it. But, i am a safety engineer by profession. It’s called CYA. - Rich

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Im gonna go on out on a limb here.
I would guess laser cutting it would add a bit of a charcoal flavor to your meal. But if your into that carbon after taste, go for it :wink:

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This something that I had planned on trying as well. Like everything else, it will take some playing with the settings. If a laser can cut paper without scorching, it might be able to handle a little pasta.

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Sand it down :slight_smile:

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I used to make frozen lasagna with cooked noodles. (hey, if you’re making lasagna, you may as well make 5 pans and load the freezer. One long sweaty afternoon, many meals.)

Then somebody clued me in that you can do it with uncooked lasagna. World changed. Just make sure there’s enough sauce to keep the noodles moist while cooking, so it doesn’t come out crispy.

Several months ago I really tried to get somebody on the forum to say that I could use a separate honeycomb, or wipe down the interior. Same premise and suggestions as @soldiercoleman
How much precaution would be enough to make it ok to use the same glowforge for food and plastic?

Nobody would venture to agree that it could be done.

I can’t justify a $3500 lasagna and gingerbread cutter when I am still using a $30 blender. (been drooling over blendtec since they were k-tec.)

The temptation is real. My death would be on my own hands, I’m well aware. The temptation is real.

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I don’t know about anyone else, but I think if I want to cut/engrave some food in my laser cutter I’m just going to go for it. I think I would be more worried about the food making a mess of the laser cutter than the laser cutter somehow contaminating the food. The grease or sugar (or whatever) in the food catching fire would be concerning too.

As far as food safety goes, I guess the air assist might pick up contaminants and force them into the food to some extent. Makes sense, right? That doesn’t worry me, but maybe I’m just naive. Other than that, I prolly wouldn’t want to put the food directly onto the honeycomb (that sounds gross and messy to me).

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Can you? Yes. Should you? I dunno.

Here’s some pasta being cut. This is some multigrain spaghetti, the box doesn’t say “angel hair”, or anything like that, but it seems to be pretty small. I also tried some cellentani pasta (I think that’s what it is, the bag says “twists”) which also cut, but the shape wasn’t conducive to focusing so the cut wouldn’t necessarily go all the way through.
(no meaningful audio - prepare to mute)

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Now that is interesting cutting pastasciutta. Definite potential for creating some interesting mouth feel.

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I agree, I’m personally not worried about being trace amounts of acrylic or wood in my food. I’ve eaten far worse things than that.

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You are out of likes. You must wait 6 hours.

Just thought I’d share in the “eaten far worse” category. :sunglasses:

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Said everyone who has been in the military! :grin: :fearful: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

or public school…

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Or gone camping…

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or to a fast food restaurant…

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I can’t like enough. That had me giggling and going into a maniacal evil genius laugh. My favorite video of the day… possibly the week. Thanks for those 36 seconds.

“Eaten far worse” category is pretty funny.

This discussion is EXACTLY what I was trying to get a few months ago… a community consensus that I may not die of lasered gingerbread after making an edge-lit acrylic sign.

I hadn’t even dreamed of pasta - but the evil maniacal laugh is still going.

School lunch, fast food, my college roommate’s dinners, some meals I’ve made myself… Ramen. Boxed Mac’n’cheese… halloween candy for breakfast…

Thank you thank you thank you.

And to the Glowforge Lawyers, I know you don’t advise it.
Life is a risk.

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