Does anyone here use their laser for cutting metal? I’d love to hear some experiences. Not expecting 1/2" thick steel plate, but I’ve successfully cut stainless shim stock with ease and I’m wondering what the practical limits of a CO2 tube might be. Here’s a pic of a couple of holes in 4 thou shim stock done in a single pass with a 90W tube.
I haven’t done extensive testing so I don’t know what limits I might hit. This was done with a 90W laser at 20mA, (about 80% of max operating power), 5mm/s and 30psi of shop air. The cuts are a little rough so I’ll need to do some more experimenting. I do have some thicker stock coming from McMaster-Carr but I don’t want to sacrifice it all to just messing around. Still, being able to cut shim stock is going to be a pretty useful addition to my machine.