Has anyone tried to cut Biothane with the Glowforge?

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Just checking to see if anyone has attempted or successfully cut Biothane with their Glowforge. I know there are different thicknesses of Biothane but I just need to cut the thinner stuff, about 1/8" thick. Any advice is appreciated.

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Some Biothane has a pvc coating which I think would be unsafe to laser. You will need to make sure the product you wish to cut is polyester but without a pvc coating.

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Thanks. I know that the Biothane manufacturer advertises the ability the cut the biothane with a large format C02 laser. I would assume then that it would be safe to cut it with a small format CO2 laser.

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Industrial machines can safely cut materials that our hobby-grade machine can not. Specifically, they are made with potentially hazardous materials in mind.

Get the SDS for the exact material you plan to use and check that it doesn’t contain corrosive materials.

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What is BioThane®?

BioThane® is the brand name of all coated webbing products made by BioThane Coated Webbing Corp. It’s basically a polyester webbing with a TPU or PVC coating that makes it more durable, waterproof, easy to clean and weldable.

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You can run the risk to your machine based on this video if you like. If it were me I’d take the peace of mind step to get the SDS from them and confirm the specific material you want to cut doesn’t have any PVC. Just a little will cause catastrophic corrosion even though technically it can be cut.

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hi, Did you get an answer and have you tried it?

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Reminder that the C in PVC is for Chloride, and if you cut something with PVC, you’re creating chlorine gas. Chlorine gas was used as a chemical weapon during WWI - it’s nasty, nasty stuff. Definitely not worth taking chances on that.

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There’s a thread around here somewhere with a guy managing to fix his machine after just one use of some pvc in his machine.
And chlorine gas while bad, it’s the mixing with hydrogen that makes hydrochloric acid that really takes the cake.
….
Literally, cause it’s basically stomach acid.

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