Hi there. I was cutting some earrings and I noticed a very tiny amount of smoke was occurring underneath my wood piece (medium red oak hardwood). I’ve never noticed that before, I almost thought I was seeing things. I did notice that the tiny pieces that I was cutting out where falling beneath the tray, no idea if maybe the laser was hitting these tiny pieces while finishing the cut (or if this would be an issue). I’m super new so any feedback would be appreciated. I am still getting used to my machine and I’m unsure what’s normal and what’s not.
Smoke is especially prevalent when cutting cardboard. I’m probably more risk tolerant than most, but my computer is within arms reach of the GF, and I don’t leave it for a second when cutting cardboard, or fabric.
Paper and especially cardboard need to be watched - and acrylic. The fires we have seen have mostly been acrylic, and flame on acrylic will propagate quickly. Most of the damage was due to no one paying attention to it. No need to be paranoid, just observant.
When an intricate design has a lot of detail the laser dumps a lot of energy in a small area, when that is done on acrylic you had better watch it carefully.
You can drop a rag on a flame or hit it with a squirt bottle, so good to have one available - just in case.
