I’ve had my GF for under a week, yet for some reason I seem to think that I can use it to bang out an awesome wedding gift for my cousin, who is getting married this Friday. I have a plan and I’m working on a design, but I’m going to need to both engrave and cut some Alumilite casting resin. Specifically I use Alumilite Clear casting resin. I’ve already checked the MSDS and here on the forum and I’m certain enough that it’s both capable of being cut on the GF as well as being safe to do so, but I don’t see any settings here or in the google doc. I’d love to use this as an opportunity to experiment with finding the perfect settings for a non-PG material, but I don’t think this is the right project to do that with for the first time.
If by any chance someone has working settings for Alumilite, I’d really appreciate it if you could share. The blanks I will be cutting will be 1/8 to 3/16 thick (design has not been finalized yet.) Short of working settings, does anyone have any advice for efficiently dialing in the working settings? I’m thinking I’ll start with settings for Acrylic and adjust from there, but if there’s a better way I’m all ears.
We have had a couple of other people working with casting resin, but the method used was to create a frame for the design and pour the colored resins in after the fact. I don’t recall seeing anyone actually try to cut cured resin.
You might be the first to try. (If it works…let us know. And good luck with your wedding gift!)
Chuckle! Did all of that and more the first time I made a cut on the PRU. (Fire suppression blankets, spray bottle of water, damp rag, one of those little burst bombs that suppress a fire that gets out of control…)
So, important side note: I’ve been a professional fire dancer for 15 years, so I’ve got a rather keen sense of “oh, flame” and “sh!t, fire!”
It remained at “oh, flame” - but all the same, flames do NOT belong inside my incredibly expensive equipment! So, that helped me decide it wasn’t worth the risk to my equipment.
What scared me, honestly, was the smell. I only made a tiny cut but it was stinky and I like my lungs and brain cells.
I ended up deciding to do something different with the project I mentioned, but I do plan on playing with some offcuts in the future. @theresa.meis was the resin you tried with the “Amazing” clear cast resin, which is the one also used for bar tops? The reaction you describe sounds like an Epoxy resin, which is what Amazing is. I use one of the urethane resins, which should laser properly.
Should…
I’ve been holding off until I finish refining my exhaust system. All the same I’ll proceed with caution. Thanks for the advice.
Urethanes get melty with the heat needed to cut through it, and they emit HCN (cyanide) gas. Keep an eye on things and keep alert for any shortness of breath while the unit is running. Shortness or even light headedness will be the first signs.
I havent tried cutting through urethane yet but have engraved it… it came out nice IMO.
Noted. This is not urethane rubber, however. I’ve read the MSDS and spoken to the manufacturer, this product does not break down thermally into anything more harmful than CO and CO2.
That is entirely possible. It is the product I am using and I understand it to be a urethane resin. I’m not saying you’re wrong, as soon as I read your reply my first reaction was “I’m an idiot.” But I went looking at some of my resources to find out what kind of resin it actually is, and any I can find that defines it refers to it as a urethane resin. This may be a misnomer in the woodturning community, like the graphite in pencils is called the lead even though there’s no lead in it… I don’t know.
