Cutting titanium or niobium

[nic1]

I am anxiously awaiting my gf delivery and I from what I’ve read, it’s not the right type of laser to cut metal…but was curious if I had really thin sheets of titanium or niobium 22 or 26 gauge (.025”/.016”) would it be able to cut it?

[reynoso]

@nic1 welcome to the forum.

No CO2 laser in the 40 watt category will cut even a kitchen aluminum foil. You need at least a fiber laser with a much more powerful beam.
However, you can permanently mark metal using a spray like Cermark. There are hundreds of materials you can use to score, cut or engrave on your

[nic1]

I thought that might be the case but was hoping…thank you so much for the quick response

[evansd2]

There’s been some experimentation with titanium that was surprising— it appeared to produce colors and even remove some material:

WHAAAT!? You can mark uncoated titanium!?

I did a little testing to see what colors I could make. Here’s a photo of a few test patterns… [image] Mostly blues and yellows. I guess you could call a couple of them “red-ish”. All of these were done with the laser focused on the surface of the metal at 1000 lines per inch. I’d like to find a piece of titanium with a more uniform surface before doing any more testing. Somewhere in the testing something interesting happened. I didn’t notice it at the time, but it seems that the laser actual…

I’m not sure if it’s ever been reproduced… a search of titanium here will yield other discussions, you might want to dig through them and see what you find.

[nic1]

You can anodize titanium with heat or electrical current…I have a set up for that…but I had not thought about the heat from the laser coloring the titanium I may need to experiment with that…thank you

[CMadok]

I was looking at a fiber/co2 laser for quite some time. I’ve had my eye on it since before the glowforge… But convincing my husband that I really NEED a 75k dollar laser, and not just WANT a 75k dollar laser has been difficult. I told him we can get it used for 50k…still not winning that battle…not when he can buy another car or two at that price.

[geek2nurse]

@reynoso

No CO2 laser in the 40 watt category will cut even a kitchen aluminum foil.

Actually I’ve done that, but by accident, and it was more melted than cut. I was using it behind some small intricate cuts so they didn’t fall into the tray, and after several repeats (testing various cut settings ) in the same location I discovered holes burned through the foil in a few places.

[timjedwards]

@geek2nurse

holes burned through the foil

I have a memory of some “will it laser?” posts where many repeated cuts would make it through some surprising materials, like slate.

[nic1]

I hear ya…while I can justify a lot of expenses…that is one I can’t…especially since it’s just for personal use and not a business expense