Laser Materials

@lasertechs @laserusers

tl;dr 4mm ply laser stock is really warped, can cause serious flame-age due to laser focus if not careful - don’t use if the other thicknesses will work!

Noticed this week when using the laser that the 4mm plywood in the store of materials is really curved, probably a (perfectly understandable) humidity/moisture issue, but it caused quite a few issues with cutting and engraving given the deflection was about 20mm at its worst, making focusing the laser basically impossible for large objects being cut/engraved.

It ended up being ok for me as I didn’t need a particularly close tolerance in my cuts and I just ran a second pass where needed, but given that the focus issue can cause serious flame-age when not calibrated right, I thought it was worth highlighting!

Also, I know this is know to the laser techs, as a couple of them stopped by while I was working on my project, but someone jammed the old clamps to the aluminium bed and basically smashed it up pretty badly in places, making it tricky to get a perfectly flat project on the bed - they’ve removed those clamps, but obviously need a new solution!

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As some members seemed to think that jamming the clearly too-small clamps into the new bed damaging it (and not reporting it) is acceptable behaviour the old clamps have been removed to prevent further damage.

New clamps will be made at some point

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The 9mm was pretty warped too. Had issues getting through it.