Good evening,

I'm trying to find information on buying a laser engraver-cutter for model making. Is anyone using one?

My purpose would be to cut styrene, balsa, basswood and plywood (3/8" 10mm). More or less to make ho scale models.

Any help in information would be appreciated.

Regards,

Michel

These may be of interest

https://www.marklin-users.net/forum/posts/t22166-Snoozerman-s-Layout-and-CO2-laser-modelling

and


http://www.cnczone.com/

Quite an assortment of laser but the biggest issue is that most will not ship to Canada! Still looking.......

Regards,

Michel

I've had quite a lot of experience with laser cutting acrylic, PETG, plywood and pdf board.

When I owned the company (7 years ago), I had 2 laser cutting machines - industrial standard. One was 200w & the other 500w, CO2 lasers. The smaller machine could cut through acrylic sheets up to 15mm thickness and the larger machine up to 25mm thickness. The important factor with laser cutting is to be able to adjust the focal length, i.e. the laser head must be adjustable to sit at the correct height above the material that is to be cut. Similarly, with engraving, otherwise the laser beam will not perform well. Also, fume extraction is very important when cutting acrylic, otherwise "flaming" will occur and this can be detrimental to the work as well as the machine.

Software is very important as well. Our machines had software incorporated into the machines which controlled the laser power, especially when the laser beam was changing direction. For those remember their high school calculus, when the curve changes direction there is a stationary point and the speed is zero at the point of change. Therefore, if the beam is not moving then there's extra laser power at that position and this can cause "burn outs". e.g. If you're cutting a rectangle, the the burn outs will occur at the corners.

I really miss not having the laser machines as I could really do some neat constructions. There was one item that I made and it was really successful - it was a helix cut from 3mm thick clear acrylic. The circles were cut into segments and the support columns were cut exactly to give me a 3% rise. Also, I could accurately cut pieces that were glued to the base pieces and this held the track in position.

If you need any further information, just ask.

Regards
Greg