Can you laser cut with faux leather or similar material

[jmchirumbolo]

wondering if you can safely laser cut faux leather or materials?

Thanks,
Jaime

[djfb]

Depends on what it is made of. JPPLUS has some faux leather that can be laser Ed, I believe. Just have to be careful of the contents. If it has vinyl, don’t! There is a thread on here talking about faux vinyl, do yourself a favor and do a search before you laser anything you don’t already know to be safe.

[evansd2]

Normally I would just let @djfb’s answer stand, because everything he said was correct… but this is your first post, so let me elaborate a bit.

If you’re not aware, cutting “vinyl” (anything with PVC in it) is one of the few things that can damage your machine. The problem is that the process of lasering PVC releases chemicals that form acids that will corrode your machine. Cutting PVC even once can potentially destroy your entire glowforge.

Also, since you’re new to the forum sometimes search can be a little tricky. Again, @djfb was spot on, but in case search if being difficult for you, here’s a link to a search of this topic:

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=faux%20leather

The first 5 threads all look very relevant to what you’re asking, definitely read through them.