Whereas many people now have laser cutters — both a K40-style machine or one of many newer high-output diodes — you most likely don’t have one which cuts steel. True, some pastime lasers now provide IR laser heads with modest energy to engrave steel. The xTool S1, for instance, accepts a 2 W IR laser as an possibility, however we doubt it might minimize by means of something thicker than foil. Nevertheless, there are a rising variety of fiber and carbon dioxide lasers that may minimize steel at semi-reasonable costs, and [All3DP] has a primer on the technology that’s value a learn.
Based on the publish, CO2 lasers are inexpensive however require gasoline help, can’t work with shiny metals nicely, and are finicky due to the mirrors and glass tube inside. Fiber lasers price extra, however don’t want gasoline, work on extra supplies, and have fewer elements that want upkeep or could also be inclined to break. There are different kinds of lasers, however the publish focuses on these, the most typical ones.
Machines that may minimize steel aren’t low cost. They begin at about $10,000. Nevertheless, costs are dropping and we keep in mind when $10,000 would purchase you what would right now be a horrible oscilloscope, so perhaps there’s hope for an impulse-buy metal-cutting laser sooner or later.
It isn’t that diode lasers can’t cut metal in any respect, however the outcomes are usually not terribly helpful. What would you fairly have? A steel cutter or a metal 3D printer?
