I tried laser cutting a sheet of Magnum magnet material and saw the sparks flying off of it. I only did a couple test circle cuts. I didn’t want to try anymore because of the sparks. Does anyone know for sure if the small sparks wont affect the machine? I would love to start cutting out shapes from the magnet material like ribbons and paw prints. Hope someone would be able to let me know.
You should be okay - not a lot of energy in a spark and everything in their is pretty fire resistant. Some people are concerned about the visible light on their retinas, so don’t look straight at it. If you really want to see some sparks go slow at full power over slate.
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The sparks may not be dangerous as sparks, but each spark is a little piece of slightly magnetized metal, and it gets all over the machine. I’m not worried about the light but I am worried about sticky iron filings getting into the electronics, which is why I’m not cutting any more of this stuff in my Glowforge.
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Ah, that’s a very good point. Too bad. i wanted to apply stickers to the magnet sheets and cut them out, like Paw prints, or ribbons, or anything really.
Did anyone determine a good stick on sheet that you can cut? I read through all the comments, but wasn’t clear if there was a conclusion.
I used this:
It worked to make fridge magnets out of plywood, BUT…
- The adhesive isn’t very strong. I had to add 3M 77 spray adhesive to get the magnet to stick adequately to the wood.
- The edges get powdery after cutting, lots of black dust on them.
- This thickness sheet makes for a weak magnet. A fridge magnet 3" x 3" can hold up itself, but you wouldn’t even want to put a piece of paper behind it.
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thank you so much! Have you ever tried to use this with the magnetic paint?
Nope, never used magnetic paint. Sounds fun but it also sounds like it is bound to be quite weak.
If I happen to ever get around to do this… I will let you know how it works!!
I have a vague recollection from HS physics that heating can cause ferrous materials to demagnetize. (This is definitely true at the high temperatures for forging knives and such, a magnet test is often used to check proper heat treat temps). Perhaps lasering weakens an already not very strong magnet?
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It’s called the Curie point, and you’d have to heat the entire sheet to around 1,400º F to affect it.
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I’ve used a “magnetic” primer. It is an oil based primer with iron particles in it. I needed seven coats before rare-earth magnets would hold their weight.
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This one seems to be superior to the other options by quite a bit. I get small neodymium magnets to stick with two coats, even through another layer of paint and paper:
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Would this be safe to cut on the glowforge?
I have. It’s “sparkly” and dirty, but easy enough to clean up afterwards.
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I didn’t know that! Now I have another reason to go up there from tucson!
Are these what you’ve cut? Do you have settings?
Cutting magnets is messy and put iron rust on my fridge. Never again magnets!
I don’t - I believe the last set I cut was back before they changed the power & speed settings from units that made sense to arbitrary numbers. You’ll need to sacrifice a bit of the material to make some test cuts. You may want to try doing 2 passes at the lowest power that will cut so that you minimize the dust mess it kicks up.
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Oh wow! Sorry to hear, & appreciate the feedback.
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