K40 for acrylic cutting

[qwerty]

Hi guys,

after spending many many hours reading different forums/blogs I decided to register here and ask you - K40 owners.

I would like to move my acrylic cutting workflow to higher level. Now I use a circular saw for rough cut, router to smooth the edges and hot air gun for melting the edges. I am pretty happy with results, this is 5 mm clear extruded acrylic edge:



Pros:
- perfectly flat edge
- no problem to process much thicker acrylic with suitable router bit

Cons:
- very very time consuming
- vertical and horizontal marks from router bit (sanding paper not used)
- limited to straight cuts
- chips while cutting/routing

I am wondering if DC-K40III is a right starting point for budget limited laser cutter workflow. Please, K40 owners, can you answer couple of question?

1) Is K40 right out of the box able to cut 5 mm extruded acrylic rectangle in one pass leaving crystal clear edge?

2) With well aligned laser beam, air assist, high quality focus lens, focus point in the half of material thickness, correct combination of speed and power, consistent tube cooling water temperature, what are K40 maximum possibilities? User waltfl wrote he can cut 6 mm acrylic... My only requirement is to have beautiful edge...

3) Can you show a picture of cut edge from your machine?

4) When using default focus lens in K40, is edge rounding noticable on 5 mm acrylic cut?

5) Any chance of using upgraded (question #2) K40 for single pass cutting of e.g. 8 mm or 10 mm acrylic? If not, what tube wattage would be needed? 60W, 80W?

Thank you very much.

[ivantandy]

The k40 is not suitable for this purpose even with upgrade and air assist will still be problematic. Also cut dimension will be quite small. You will want to consider a 60 or 80

http://www.lightobject.com/Professional ... -P788.aspx

at minimum

[waltfl]

hi there
to answer #1 if the machine has a DSP then yes the edges are crystal clear but needs to be a bit of sanding to smooth out the not feel able but viewable ripple
#2 6mm is pretty much maximum
#3 I will try to take a picture is not easy because anything's egraved will show thru
#4 no the laser cuts just straight
#5 yes you could with some afford upgrade to a 50W tube with a 50W power supply
overall you always would have the same raw edge
greetings

waltfl

Hi guys,

after spending many many hours reading different forums/blogs I decided to register here and ask you - K40 owners.

I would like to move my acrylic cutting workflow to higher level. Now I use a circular saw for rough cut, router to smooth the edges and hot air gun for melting the edges. I am pretty happy with results, this is 5 mm clear extruded acrylic edge:



Pros:
- perfectly flat edge
- no problem to process much thicker acrylic with suitable router bit

Cons:
- very very time consuming
- vertical and horizontal marks from router bit (sanding paper not used)
- limited to straight cuts
- chips while cutting/routing

I am wondering if DC-K40III is a right starting point for budget limited laser cutter workflow. Please, K40 owners, can you answer couple of question?

1) Is K40 right out of the box able to cut 5 mm extruded acrylic rectangle in one pass leaving crystal clear edge?

2) With well aligned laser beam, air assist, high quality focus lens, focus point in the half of material thickness, correct combination of speed and power, consistent tube cooling water temperature, what are K40 maximum possibilities? User waltfl wrote he can cut 6 mm acrylic... My only requirement is to have beautiful edge...

3) Can you show a picture of cut edge from your machine?

4) When using default focus lens in K40, is edge rounding noticable on 5 mm acrylic cut?

5) Any chance of using upgraded (question #2) K40 for single pass cutting of e.g. 8 mm or 10 mm acrylic? If not, what tube wattage would be needed? 60W, 80W?

Thank you very much.

[qwerty]

Thanks for your replies, guys. Looks like I need 50W at least. K40 possibilities are rather limited, but, IMHO, still impressive for this price tag. I started to flirt with idea of building the cutter...