Another cutting question about balsa.

Hi,

There has been a couple of threads in the past about this, but i would like some fresh input on this.

What would be required to cut 2 - 3mm Balsa Wood? It does not matter if i have to first draw with a black sharpie, this is acceptable.

Would a 200mw 405nm laser diode cut this? What about two 200mw 405nm lasers pointed at the same location? Or would i need more power?

How about card stock? (think typical hallmark card thickness)

What sort of focusing would i need to cut this? I understand i would need to focus it as much as possible, what would i use to focus? Where do you get lenses for this?

I'm pretty inexperienced at the moment, and would not be jumping straight into building this, but rather something to ponder about while i experiment with lower power lasers.

Cheers, and thanks.

How is this going to be set up? Will this be part of a CNC type setup, or will it be a portable unit? What is you budget? What precision do you need? What speed do you want to cut the wood?

My personal preference would be IR (infrared). You might need a power level of around 500mw+ to do qiuck cutting, but again it depends on speed and other factors.

Hope that helped -Adrian

Cutting? CO2 laser............
HMike

It's going to be part of a XY table. Non-portable. Budget, I'm not so sure about, hopefully possible for a couple of hundred dollars for the laser?

Speed not so important.

I read somewhere (possibly here) that smaller wavelengths (ie. 405nm) will be absorbed better by lighter coloured objects, although if i sharpie the outline first i guess this isnt so important....... ?

This is true. But overall you will be better off with IR. Use a small Co2 laser tube with front surface mirrors on the table to bring the beam to the cutting plane.

Also I have a stepper motor controller for sale. Its 4 axis, so it will be able to do what you want to do with your CNC as well as have room to spare.

PM if interested (good price) -Adrian

Lonestar balsa now has contest grade balsa in the size of 3x36 and 4x36 look them up online.

If you use a normal diode it's going to need heat sinking since it will be on for more than just a few minutes.What about an array of 445nm diodes at 800mw each? If you simply focus them on one point won't they work?

Use this diode (I believe it's actually a 10x)

BDR-S06J 12x Blu-Ray burner lens(500+mW) [M0019] - $51.99 : Modwerx Shop

Put it in an axis module (link) and get a lens for 405nm. (link) Put the module in a nice heatsink http://www.modwerx.com/shop/heatink...modules-p-49?zenid=bs2fo3oqbavve9c2rtb0ar66p7 and now all you need is a driver. You should set your driver to 350ma for around 500mw and a good lifetime. The driver you use depends on you power source, if it's over 7 or 8 volts you want to use a buck driver (link) but if it's lower you want to use a boost or boost/buck like the flexdrive (link)