Material safety and usage cheat sheet

I found this page that has a pretty good list of materials, and what happens when you laser cut them.

http://atxhackerspace.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter_Materials

There has been a ton of talk in the forums about particular materials, but I’ve noticed its getting a little repetitive (yes, don’t cut pvc) . It would be great to get that condensed into a single go-to area. I thought this list was a pretty good start. Add some info below if you thinks its missing materials. Then in the future we can direct people to this series of posts, rather than all over the forums.

(PS, Their laser is somewhere between 10 - 60 W so it should be similar to what we are getting)

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This topic has had some reasonable participation and seems to have some good experiments for testing plastics for safe cutting. They also have your atxhackerspace.org link.

And similar posting times. Well if it doesn’t gain any traction, Ill take it down. Just glad its covered else ware.

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Great minds think alike, eh.

Hmm, I wonder why they’re eating the acrylic at that maker space?

There are fake leathers that do not contain chlorine and should be safe for lasers. I’ve seen products for sale containing these “vegan” leathers that are laser cut. On the other hand, trying to obtain these materials unless you are ordering in factory quantities poses a challenge.

I saw a list like this from a university web site that said if you cut tropical woods you’ll be banned for life from their laser with no explanation beyond they are oily. This site says they are more likely to catch fire. A more detailed list of non-temperate hard woods would be nice if it exists.

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Here is a good reason not to work with tropical woods unless you really know what you’re dealing with.

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