Is this allowed? Can’t see it on the allowed materials list, yet…
Got some ideas of things that would be fun to make, I’ve seen a few videos of folks doing cool things with engraving etc.
Cheers
Calum
Laser cutting bread
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It tastes disgusting, apparently
I was told that there’s no food in the laser
There’s no reason why you can’t put food in the laser cutter.
That is what I said.
Rules is rules. …
Aye I’ve heard mixed reports - some saying it was v burnt but also some promising ones saying the secret was multiple fast passes.
Who wrote the food prohibition and why? I can understand not cutting something messy but bread really isn’t and it doesn’t smoke more than wood… if it’s worries about vermin I don’t see why that’s a problem as long as it’s tidied as we would with lasering other stuff.
Cheers
Food was prohibited to prevent mess and was fairly blanket to avoid escalating biomatter-in-the-laser issues.
We were originally trying to avoid people putting sugar into the machine iirc, but any kind of spoilable foodstuffs seems a bit mad to me. Gots to be a line somewhere…
Aw man…bang goes my dream of geometric fillet steak 
I totally agree with the current rules RE food in the laser. As a lasertech, the last thing I want to see when maintaining the machine and running induction is mouldy breadcrumbs lying in the machine.
Sorry @boldaslove…
Might I ask what your application was anyways?
OK, I understand about perishable foods so will move away from fresh bread - what about something completely dry and unperishable - I was thinking crispbreads - these are less mould prone than leather etc - and I was intending to cut complex geometric shapes that would otherwise be impossible to produce. - think lacey kind of patterns in thin materials.
V happy to cut it on a base of plywood so no crumbs can even get close to the mesh, and would clean laser extremely thoroughly afterwards - though I’m sure there would be no mess.
Thanks for clearing this up.
I was asking for clarity not to cut food myself.
Although I have wanted to i the past.
I was wondering if TomL had some new info that we weren’t all privy to or there was another reason why he was saying that we were suddenly allowed to put food in the cutter after being told not to.
Saying that seems like Calum wants to go some lengths not to make any mess.
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Absolutely - happy to post in this thread any time I cut them for transparency/ to assuge concerns if it helps.
Cheers
As one of the original people to set the laser cutter the reason for the rule was to avoid the machine being abused with silly antics.
The way myself and the other laser techs at the time used to work was to encourage people to ask for unusual materials like this and set out some rules on a case by case basis.
Where Jonathan is expressing concern about mouldy crumbs, the reasonable approach would be to mandate that people using food in the machine do a full clean down of the machine after.
That’s my view on it. There are issues as Pete said of burning more combustible materials but this again should be treated with the same as any new material, look at the flamibilty, and fumes.
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You really, really don’t want to eat anything that is been in contact with the residue of the acrylics , this is not only a concern for the laser cutter, is a concern for the people.
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No definitely not. The assumption was for this to create something non edible.
I think you need to let lasertechs decide this.
They should be the ones deciding rules and deciding to bend them.
So, currently the rule is no food.
If that’s to change then someone needs to put a compelling argument to the @lasertechs, which they would need to agree on as a group. It’s really up to them at this stage.
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I’m not changing the rules but commenting on them.
This is a member owned organisation and we all have a right to input in how things are run and managed.
I don’t agree we should simply resign ourselves to the rules just because that’s what’s established there are plenty of rules that never get enforced and others like this which are unnecessary in certain contexts.