Re: laser cnc

And then they mentioned

> >the Laser Printers. That might be a source of parts, only
> >I doubt if the laser is powerful enough to cut the vinyl film.
> >
> >
> Oh, certainly not. Those lasers are in the 1 mW range, although you
> might find a high-speed laser printer with up to 5 mW or so. That's
> about it.
>
> Jon

Oh, sorry, I missed that bit from Bob. Uhm, yes, Jon is correct, you
are not going to cut anything with a laser diode from a regular laser
printer. Some of the graphics printers have larger fiber coupled
diodes up to several watts in power, but they are really the wrong
wavelength to cut plastics (820nm vs 10,600nm for CO2). I have a 1.5
watt fiber coupled diode from one of these printers, and while it
will burn cardboard and paper when focused, it really wouldn't do
much else, or at least it would be sooooo slow, like 1-2 IPM. These
diodes are also quite a bit more dangerous than the more powerfull
CO2 laser. The 10,600nm wavelength of the CO2 laser is blocked by
almost all plastics and glass, the only things that will pass it are
salt windows, ZnSe (zinc selenide) and Germanium. This means you can
wear regular plastic shop goggles to protect your eyes. The 820nm
laser diode will pass right through regular clear plastic and glass
and get focused nicely onto the rods and cones in your eye. Bad.

Rick