As more and more europeans glowforge are arriving to their home, finding materials to cut locally can be an issue. There are many supplyers in the US (including great Proofgrade or Inventables) but many of them don’t ship to Europe or with shipping/taxing cost which make those products unrelevant for our use. If in some times, There will be a proofgrade supplyer in EU, it will be great but for now, how to do?
For example, for me, I have no idea where to find acrylic sheets from a european shop?
So A little thread to share some european supplyers for lasercut materials can be useful for many of us.
I just received my glowforge and for now I don’t have already try many supplyers. I have bought some plywood from major DIY-shops like Leroy Merlin but it seems to be very variable in quality (holes in it, warped). I also try the shop AUPROTEC from Germany in Amazon (I don’t have test it for now) but it looks better.
Some links for laser products I don’t have ordered yet:
I just started my searches. Feel free to share your adresses in your countries or online with the other. I f find some other interessant possibilities, I will add it here.
In the UK, I tend to use https://hobarts.com/ for acrylic and laserable wood. I’ve ordered some veg tanned leather off ebay. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I live in Finland, promised land of birch plywood, so I would assume I can get the good stuff here, but does anyone have any idea of how to describe the spec for it? Is “aircraft grade” the correct term?
Someone else will likely know more. If I remember correctly aircraft or marine grade plywoods tend to be of good quality and special glues. But also has more layers and therefore more glue. Glue is the enemy to lasers. More glue equals more power required.
But I have never really spent any time examining the material and don’t use it enough to say with certainty.
Plywoods are described by a few metrics, but it is my understanding that true Baltic Birch, as opposed to birch plywood, meets a pretty high grade.
I think the term you’re looking for is cabinet grade. Aircraft and marine plywood are about strength and water resistance. Plywood meant to surface cabinets is about being pretty.
What is important when laser cutting plywood is the absence of internal voids and knots, a consistent thickness of materials and a glue that is vaporized nicely by a laser beam. Proofgrade plywood achieves this by using a mdf core covered by a wood veneer. I have found non-proofgrade plywoods built using this same technique and they laser well. You can tell if a plywood is traditional plywood constructed of layers of wood or a mdf core plywood by looking at the edges. The downside of mdf core plywoods is that they are not as strong as a traditional plywood. So far I have built nothing using my laser that if it failed structurally would endanger life or property, or is meant to live outside, so I’m fine with it.
I know today is waaaay later than in June when you asked but I found super good plywood from Koskisen in Finland. They are super nice and helpful and I got sent some samples. We managed to cut 8 mm but with lots of burned edge so I think 6 mm is best/maximum.
For swedish customers I think that skivspecialisten have some eco selection of mdf and koskisen plywood and also poppel plywood that I´m told are safe…
No I have not. In the US I have seen it at woodworking stores and one of the big-box DIY home improvement stores stocks a surprisingly large array of it and will order an even larger variety of it.
I have only just got my glowforge and I have no been very successpoll in finding laser safe material and masking material in germany. Has any one of you fou d suitable material there in the meantime?
Alas, Trotec no longer ships to individual customers, they now only ship to businesses with an EU VAT number.
Here are a couple that I have ordered from in France:
Technologieservices - some really nice products, including pre-dyed plywood and a fun leather that engraves to a different colour (I tried the black with silver undercoat and it looks FANTASTIC when cut and engraved! However delivery was super slow as a couple of products were not in stock (and seem to rarely be stocked) so patience is required.
ERM - I really liked the products, available in A4 size and above, good quality and the packaging is very neat. I tried some plywoods, both really nice, and some clear acrylic. Communication with the customer support was great (there was a slight price bug on the site, immediately resolved).
