Session 33 – Laser Cutting: Check Material Hazards

The Concise RDWorks Learning Lab Series

Welcome to Module 4 of the new Concise RDWorks Learning Lab Series with Russ Sadler. Module 4 will build on the information learned in the previous modules and will be targeted on the process of laser cutting. Russ will explain the science behind the laser cutting process and go on to demonstrate the techniques needed to consistently achieve great laser cutting results across a variety of materials. So, what do we need to worry about with Laser Cutting material hazards?

In this Session, Russ explains the dangers of engraving a range of materials, especially plastics. The dangers include flammability, particulates and toxic fumes. Effective extraction is a must for all laser cutting and engraving activities. Just because you can laser cut a material, doesn’t mean you should.

Release Date: 25th February 2022

Over the last 6 years, Russ has built up a formidable YouTube following for his RDWorks Learning Lab series which currently has over 200 videos.

The original RDWorks Learning Lab series on his “Sarbar Multimedia” YouTube Channel, follows Russ as he tries to make sense of his new Chinese laser machine and to sort out the truths, half truths and outright misleading information that is available on the web.

Six years later with over 3 million YouTube Views under his belt, Russ has become the go to resource for everything related to the Chinese CO2 laser machine user or wannabe user.

Laser cutting hazard: polycarbonate
Laser Cutting Hazard: Polycarbonate

In this new series, Russ has condensed his knowledge and experience of the last 6 years to provide valuable information and insights into the purchasing, understanding, use, repair and maintenance of the Chinese CO2 laser machines and their key component parts.

Previous VideoNext VideoSeries Menu
Session 33 – Laser Cutting: Check Material Hazards

Podcast Download

You can download the audio file for this video here, just click on the three dots to the right of the player:

Podcast Session 33 – Laser Cutting Material Hazards

Video Resource Files for Laser Cutting Material Hazards

What Can a Laser Cutter Cut? A comprehensive list of materials and their suitability for laser cutting.

Laser cutting pet - significant bad smelling white fumes given off
Laser Cutting PET – Significant bad smelling white fumes given off

There are no additional resource files associated with this video.

There are no external resource links associated with this video.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards

Click the “Show More” button to reveal the transcript, and use your browsers Find function to search for specific sections of interest.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards

1
00:00:01,270 –> 00:00:11,900
The Concise RDWorks Learning Lab with Russ Sadler.

2
00:00:11,900 –> 00:00:16,700
Session 33- Cutting: Check Material Hazards.

3
00:00:16,700 –> 00:00:24,800
Well, in today’s session, we’re going to carry on with cutting, but we’re not going to really do any serious cutting today,

4
00:00:24,800 –> 00:00:32,480
but it is going to be a serious cutting session. Because I’m concerned about your safety.

5
00:00:32,480 –> 00:00:38,360
One of the biggest problems with cutting a material. And let’s just take a few steps backwards.

6
00:00:38,360 –> 00:00:43,730
We’re busy shaking molecules remember that are already shaking and warm,

7
00:00:43,730 –> 00:00:50,570
and we’re going to make them even hotter by making them shake faster with light energy.

8
00:00:50,570 –> 00:00:54,110
Now, when we shake them faster, I know they heat up,

9
00:00:54,110 –> 00:00:59,930
but get rid of the heating effect because the real thing you’ve got to concentrate on is this molecular motion.

10
00:00:59,930 –> 00:01:07,040
If you shake molecules hard enough, they will start to break down into their individual atoms and those individual atoms

11
00:01:07,040 –> 00:01:12,860
will migrate around and they will form relationships with other atoms that are nearby.

12
00:01:12,860 –> 00:01:18,410
What materials are they going to add to your cutting process?

13
00:01:18,410 –> 00:01:25,100
Are they going to be dangerous chemicals or are they going to be safe chemicals?

14
00:01:25,100 –> 00:01:31,940
That’s the problem. You are dealing with a very, very difficult to manage chemistry set here.

15
00:01:31,940 –> 00:01:38,720
Shaking molecules can be very dangerous, and that’s what I’m going to introduce you to today.

16
00:01:38,720 –> 00:01:47,150
Your safety, because before we can cut material safety, you need to understand a little bit about what might be possible,

17
00:01:47,150 –> 00:01:50,450
how it can damage you and your health and your machine.

18
00:01:50,450 –> 00:02:05,390
So I will just dive in with a quick example here and say, Look, there is only one safe material to cut on this machine and that water.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

19
00:02:05,390 –> 00:02:10,040
Yeah, I know it’s pretty bloody, useless, but that’s the only safe material.

20
00:02:10,040 –> 00:02:17,720
You can actually fire the laser at. Everything else that you fire the laser at has got dangers of some sort.

21
00:02:17,720 –> 00:02:23,360
Now what those dangers are is something that you will have to assess because it’s you standing by the machine.

22
00:02:23,360 –> 00:02:29,600
It’s you breathing the gas that’s coming off of this stuff, it’s you that’s going to be damaged.

23
00:02:29,600 –> 00:02:34,880
Now you can go all over the internet and find all sorts of guidance about what materials you can cut,

24
00:02:34,880 –> 00:02:39,650
what materials you can’t cut, for what reasons, how some overclaim the dangers.

25
00:02:39,650 –> 00:02:48,830
Some don’t even take into account the dangers at all. Look, I’ve got three pieces of clear material here.

26
00:02:48,830 –> 00:02:55,580
Let’s take a look at them shall we? They all look exactly the same. I’ve got the machine set to its maximum power and I’ve got a certain speed running,

27
00:02:55,580 –> 00:03:00,290
which I’m fairly confident will burn through all of these materials.

28
00:03:00,290 –> 00:03:09,200
Let’s have a look at this first material and see what happens. Note the fumes, note the colour of the smoke.

29
00:03:09,200 –> 00:03:19,340
Remember what colour is? Colour is what you see reflected off of whatever that smoke is. If it’s white,

30
00:03:19,340 –> 00:03:22,010
it means all that is being reflected at you.

31
00:03:22,010 –> 00:03:28,910
If it’s a different colour, well, some of the light energy has been absorbed and only some of the colour is being transmitted to your eye.

32
00:03:28,910 –> 00:03:37,310
Now that’s a very important thing because it tells you quite a lot about the chemical composition of what’s being sent off of that material.

33
00:03:37,310 –> 00:03:44,840
You might not be a chemist. You don’t have to be a chemist. What you have to be aware of, is that those colours mean something?

34
00:03:44,840 –> 00:03:51,350
Sometimes it’s danger. Sometimes you can’t even see the danger because gases are invisible.

35
00:03:51,350 –> 00:04:03,110
So we’ve got white gas underneath the product.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

36
00:04:03,110 –> 00:04:13,710
Let’s just pop that to one side, and let’s put this one on next.

37
00:04:13,710 –> 00:04:28,060
And let’s see what this one does. Hmmm, still a whitish gas. Smells pretty horrible, to be honest.

38
00:04:28,060 –> 00:04:42,450
And it didn’t cut through. It must have cut through a little bit because some of the fumes went underneath, but it didn’t cut through.

39
00:04:42,450 –> 00:04:49,760
It didn’t cut through cleanly. And before I cut this one.

40
00:04:49,760 –> 00:05:06,660
I’m going to be sensible and I’m going to put my extractor on. Oh, oh, oh, look at the colour of that.

41
00:05:06,660 –> 00:05:10,410
The first question is, would you want to breathe it?

42
00:05:10,410 –> 00:05:25,210
Look what we’ve got down here. Look at the mess that it’s made of that product. It has cut it.

43
00:05:25,210 –> 00:05:34,750
But look, it’s produced horror, horrible, treacly fumes around the edge burning, and it’s produced all this yellow stuff as well.

44
00:05:34,750 –> 00:05:41,700
This one has produced. A little hint of yellow fumes, but nothing serious.

45
00:05:41,700 –> 00:05:45,180
It was mainly white and it has actually popped out.

46
00:05:45,180 –> 00:05:52,480
But look at the quality of the finish. I mean, OK, so it’s clean, but it’s very, very rough.

47
00:05:52,480 –> 00:06:00,070
It’s not a good cut. And this one. Well look at it, it’s superb.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

48
00:06:00,070 –> 00:06:04,570
It’s almost got a mirror edge on it and it’s clean.

49
00:06:04,570 –> 00:06:12,190
So there’s a good example of how three different plastics that look the same are not the same.

50
00:06:12,190 –> 00:06:20,170
I wouldn’t want to breathe this stuff, even this stuff. Even this stuff, as you can see, it’s got a hint of yellowness about it.

51
00:06:20,170 –> 00:06:26,290
OK, now and this one is completely clean. I’ve got a small amount of air assist coming through here.

52
00:06:26,290 –> 00:06:38,350
Air, that we breathe is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and the two do not mix together.

53
00:06:38,350 –> 00:06:42,440
They exist as a mixture, not as a compound in any way.

54
00:06:42,440 –> 00:06:48,790
They’re not associated with each other and the remaining one percent, most of it is argon.

55
00:06:48,790 –> 00:06:59,770
There’s a little teeny weeny bit of things like kryptonite. Wow. Kryptonite and hydrogen and helium and some xenon and some neon.

56
00:06:59,770 –> 00:07:08,920
There’s lots of trace elements that we breathe in. The two major elements of the air that we breathe are oxygen and nitrogen.

57
00:07:08,920 –> 00:07:15,160
And so when we fire air into our cut.

58
00:07:15,160 –> 00:07:24,790
We’re adding oxygen and nitrogen into the mix of chemical reaction that’s happening down in the product itself.

59
00:07:24,790 –> 00:07:28,120
Here is the construction of acrylic, which is this first one that

60
00:07:28,120 –> 00:07:36,730
we did. Carbon four of them, hydrogen six of them and oxygen two of them. All bonded together in a certain structure.

61
00:07:36,730 –> 00:07:50,660
Now PET, which is this polyethylene terephthalate.

62
00:07:50,660 –> 00:07:57,460
Excellent, Terry. Excellent light. OK, so you say tomatoes?

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

63
00:07:57,460 –> 00:08:07,660
and I say tomatoes, and I can’t actually pronounce that at all. Look carbon, hydrogen oxygen, carbon, hydrogen oxygen.

64
00:08:07,660 –> 00:08:14,140
And then we’ve got this rubbish stuff over here that was absolutely abysmal to cut – polycarbonate,

65
00:08:14,140 –> 00:08:19,870
which you’re all familiar with. Riot shields, bus shelters, all those sorts of things where you want to be vandal proof.

66
00:08:19,870 –> 00:08:23,140
Then you use this stuff because it’s almost indestructible.

67
00:08:23,140 –> 00:08:32,350
Look, carbon hydrogen oxygen still the same basic composition of atoms, but in a different mix.

68
00:08:32,350 –> 00:08:36,010
And yet they perform completely differently.

69
00:08:36,010 –> 00:08:44,260
And they also mix with air completely differently as well, because look what we’ve done to these three products.

70
00:08:44,260 –> 00:08:51,650
This one produced a really horrible yellowy brown gas fumes.

71
00:08:51,650 –> 00:09:00,710
Now, I would not go near those fumes, and they say that you can cut very, very thin polycarbonate. Well you can cut 3mm polycarbonate.

72
00:09:00,710 –> 00:09:11,120
But look, it’s absolute rubbish. The thing about brown smoke or yellow smoke is, you know, all you’ve got to do is Google,

73
00:09:11,120 –> 00:09:17,900
“what produces yellow smoke” and you’ll find the answer is, it’s nitrogen dioxide.

74
00:09:17,900 –> 00:09:24,350
It’s a very common gas that we produce from engines and cars and things like that in small amounts.

75
00:09:24,350 –> 00:09:28,340
This is not a small amount. We’re producing huge volumes of it here.

76
00:09:28,340 –> 00:09:35,090
Although I said to you, nitrogen and oxygen exist together in the air, completely harmlessly because they’re separate.

77
00:09:35,090 –> 00:09:43,910
When you start heating them up or shaking them so that they decide to break down from one structure and form another structure,

78
00:09:43,910 –> 00:09:52,820
then hey, that’s a bit of a different situation. The only time that that happens here on Earth is when we get lightning.

79
00:09:52,820 –> 00:09:59,600
That’s the only time that maybe those two chemicals, oxygen and nitrogen can react with each other.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

80
00:09:59,600 –> 00:10:05,610
So nitrogen dioxide, where on earth does it comes from with these?

81
00:10:05,610 –> 00:10:08,900
Look, we’ve got no nitrogen in these at all.

82
00:10:08,900 –> 00:10:12,440
We’ve got some oxygen, but that’s about it.

83
00:10:12,440 –> 00:10:22,520
The only reason we can ever produce nitrogen dioxide, which is this stuff here NO2, is because somehow the nitrogen in the air,

84
00:10:22,520 –> 00:10:32,000
when it’s heated up with our lovely little chemical reaction that’s taking place in the product must have bonded with the oxygen.

85
00:10:32,000 –> 00:10:40,370
Strangely enough, maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t to a smaller amount take place here because this was just a hint of yellow on here.

86
00:10:40,370 –> 00:10:49,250
I don’t know what the gases that were produced here. It wasn’t as aggressive as the gas that we produced here. This horrible brown yellowish gas.

87
00:10:49,250 –> 00:10:58,280
So the point being is that oxygen and nitrogen have got an affinity for each other, and they can combine to produce all sorts of chemicals.

88
00:10:58,280 –> 00:11:07,520
These, particularly these three oxides of nitrogen, which were probably present in this gas here, particularly the NO2. In this one,

89
00:11:07,520 –> 00:11:13,190
it may well have been some of these other gases as well, a small amount of that and some of these.

90
00:11:13,190 –> 00:11:22,550
Now these are interesting gases because this one here, NO, which is nitric oxide is a natural product that occurs in our body.

91
00:11:22,550 –> 00:11:32,540
Men may or may not know about this because lack of nitric oxide in our system produces, hmmm, a dysfunction.

92
00:11:32,540 –> 00:11:41,990
Let’s put it that way you shouldn’t rush to breathe this stuff to become a stallion because we’ve got these other things in here.

93
00:11:41,990 –> 00:11:51,230
Now, this one: N2O is nitrous oxide, which you may or may not be aware of is laughing gas.

94
00:11:51,230 –> 00:11:57,840
It’s used as an anaesthetic, or if you give birth, then it’s a pain relief agent.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

95
00:11:57,840 –> 00:12:04,430
And then this third one here, which is the nitrogen dioxide, which is the brown gas, the main constituent.

96
00:12:04,430 –> 00:12:11,270
It is a pollutant. It is also toxic. Let me just say that you are 60 percent water.

97
00:12:11,270 –> 00:12:18,620
If you add water to nitrogen dioxide, you get nitric acid or nitrous acid or both of them.

98
00:12:18,620 –> 00:12:20,450
Not a good combination.

99
00:12:20,450 –> 00:12:29,360
If you breathe this gas in, to your watery respiratory tract or it happens to get into your watery eyes, am I making the point clear?

100
00:12:29,360 –> 00:12:35,510
You have got a very dangerous chemical set here. You need to be very careful how you use it.

101
00:12:35,510 –> 00:12:41,720
Now, I don’t want to turn this into a chemistry lesson because I’m not a chemist. I don’t really understand what the hell I’m talking about.

102
00:12:41,720 –> 00:12:47,180
I know enough to make sure that I stay safe, and that’s all I can ask you to do.

103
00:12:47,180 –> 00:12:53,630
Do research on any plastics in particular that you plan to cut on this machine.

104
00:12:53,630 –> 00:12:57,620
Acrylic is a fairly benign and safe plastic, it isn’t safe.

105
00:12:57,620 –> 00:13:04,220
Don’t spend a great deal of time breathing in the fumes. Always have your extractor on, because it comes from the same family.

106
00:13:04,220 –> 00:13:08,690
Remember as all these other plastic products that I’ve demonstrated to you.

107
00:13:08,690 –> 00:13:20,490
So there is an element of danger, even with methyl acrylate. But with PVC, there’s a particular danger, and that’s this stuff here, chlorine.

108
00:13:20,490 –> 00:13:25,190
OK, now here is carbon, hydrogen and chlorine.

109
00:13:25,190 –> 00:13:34,220
When you heat this up to high temperature, what happens is the chlorine and the hydrogen bond to make hydrogen chloride.

110
00:13:34,220 –> 00:13:39,650
Now, when you add water to that, which you, remember, your respiratory tract and your eyes.

111
00:13:39,650 –> 00:13:46,670
You get hydrochloric acid. Again, not something you really want in your body.

112
00:13:46,670 –> 00:13:56,840
So that’s why I’m just informing you that plastics are a particularly dangerous group of chemicals to cut on this machine or to shake on this machine.

113
00:13:56,840 –> 00:14:02,960
OK? ABS is another material you don’t want to put anywhere near this machine.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

114
00:14:02,960 –> 00:14:06,050
You can use abs on, for instance,

115
00:14:06,050 –> 00:14:12,860
a fiber laser at a different wavelength, because the different wavelength has a different effect on the structure of the chemicals.

116
00:14:12,860 –> 00:14:20,840
It isn’t actually burning the chemical, shaking them to death. It’s only making them a little bit soft and then rearranging them.

117
00:14:20,840 –> 00:14:27,470
So there are no golden rules for these materials. The golden rules depend on the type of laser that you are using.

118
00:14:27,470 –> 00:14:34,940
Okay. With a CO2 laser, which is what we’re talking about here, ABS is a definite no no. Acrylonitrile

119
00:14:34,940 –> 00:14:41,060
Butadiene Styrene is what it stands for, and it’s got a very, very complex structure.

120
00:14:41,060 –> 00:14:44,210
I’m not going to go into the dangerous chemicals that it will produce,

121
00:14:44,210 –> 00:14:49,820
but it will produce dangerous chemicals, which you shouldn’t go anywhere near. With this one,

122
00:14:49,820 –> 00:14:57,260
the hydrogen chloride is not only dangerous to you, it’s also dangerous to all the metal parts in your machine.

123
00:14:57,260 –> 00:15:03,800
So another good reason for not wanting this product anywhere near your machine.

124
00:15:03,800 –> 00:15:07,870
Now Urethane is another product, you are going to come across quite a lot?

125
00:15:07,870 –> 00:15:11,990
But let’s just say, for example, leather belts or maybe some shoe leather.

126
00:15:11,990 –> 00:15:12,770
It’s not really

127
00:15:12,770 –> 00:15:23,120
leather is plastic, something they call Pleather and that basically is urethane with some other additives to it that make it look like leather.

128
00:15:23,120 –> 00:15:27,200
OK. Again, a dangerous material to cut. Go and do your own research.

129
00:15:27,200 –> 00:15:29,340
I’m not going to tell you the answers to all these questions.

130
00:15:29,340 –> 00:15:37,580
I’m just going to warn you that plastics are not a safe material to use. Now to make life a little easier for you.

131
00:15:37,580 –> 00:15:45,260
Um, a lot of this stuff is housed together in one website where you can find never cut these materials,

132
00:15:45,260 –> 00:15:48,860
and it tells you all about the materials and why you shouldn’t cut them.

133
00:15:48,860 –> 00:15:53,120
And then you’ve got materials here which you can cut and stuff that you can etch.

134
00:15:53,120 –> 00:15:57,830
Now you don’t have to believe everything everybody tells you because hey, look 50 years ago,

135
00:15:57,830 –> 00:16:02,630
they said that this stuff was going to stunt my growth, make me ugly and make my hair fall out.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

136
00:16:02,630 –> 00:16:07,730
Well, they were partially right. I mean, I’m six foot and I still got quite a lot of hair.

137
00:16:07,730 –> 00:16:12,620
Not every piece of information on here is technically correct.

138
00:16:12,620 –> 00:16:19,970
The window of the laser cutter is made of polycarbonate because polycarbonate strongly absorbs infrared radiation.

139
00:16:19,970 –> 00:16:23,840
OK, now what they’re saying is not the window,

140
00:16:23,840 –> 00:16:35,030
but the cover on your machine may well be made of polycarbonate, because it’s good at absorbing infrared radiation.

141
00:16:35,030 –> 00:16:42,920
And that is true. As I’ve demonstrated to you in the safety video, I put my glasses in front of the lens.

142
00:16:42,920 –> 00:16:50,210
These are polycarbonate, and it absorbed the radiation. Nothing went through. That bit is true.

143
00:16:50,210 –> 00:16:56,600
Then it goes on to say this is the frequency of light. the laser cutter uses. True,

144
00:16:56,600 –> 00:17:03,800
we are using infrared radiation, so it is very ineffective at cutting polycarbonate.

145
00:17:03,800 –> 00:17:11,780
The whole principle of laser cutting, we’re sending light energy into the surface, and it is being absorbed,

146
00:17:11,780 –> 00:17:19,100
which it needs to do and being converted into mechanical vibrational energy within the material itself.

147
00:17:19,100 –> 00:17:26,690
So this is wrong. It does absorb the infrared radiation, which is what it’s supposed to do.

148
00:17:26,690 –> 00:17:31,490
But that doesn’t make it difficult to cut. That makes it easy to cut. There’s a lot of information out there.

149
00:17:31,490 –> 00:17:40,260
Some of it is good. Some of it is a bit dubious because not everybody understands the way in which their laser cutter actually works.

150
00:17:40,260 –> 00:17:49,130
And what I’ve been trying to educate you guys in, is the basic fundamental elements of how this machine works so that you can work back up.

151
00:17:49,130 –> 00:17:56,540
Materials that are suitable for cutting; wood, many woods – maximum thickness, quarter inch.

152
00:17:56,540 –> 00:17:57,680
Well, that’s not true.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

153
00:17:57,680 –> 00:18:07,850
It really depends on the power of your machine, the lens you’re using, and the efficiency or the quality of the beam that you put into the lens.

154
00:18:07,850 –> 00:18:13,050
Here, it says, avoid oily or resinous woods. Well, yeah unfortunately,

155
00:18:13,050 –> 00:18:20,220
all woods have oil, and all woods have resin in them, as I demonstrated before.

156
00:18:20,220 –> 00:18:28,170
Look at the muck that I’ve managed to produce on my machine with tar that comes from wood.

157
00:18:28,170 –> 00:18:31,950
It’s always there. You will always produce smoke when you’re dealing with wood.

158
00:18:31,950 –> 00:18:37,260
Certain types of wood can produce very nasty chemicals.

159
00:18:37,260 –> 00:18:41,550
Remember, this is a chemistry set. Wood is no different to plastic.

160
00:18:41,550 –> 00:18:43,590
It’s still made of carbon and hydrogen.

161
00:18:43,590 –> 00:18:51,360
It really depends on the mix of molecules in the wood as to what chemicals you produce, what fumes you will produce.

162
00:18:51,360 –> 00:18:58,410
So don’t treat any material as being safe, except water.

163
00:18:58,410 –> 00:19:04,330
I’m just trying to think of the things that you could make with water. Cup of coffee, that’s about it.

164
00:19:04,330 –> 00:19:10,400
If you do a Google search, which basically says, what materials can I cut with my laser?

165
00:19:10,400 –> 00:19:16,580
There will be several sites that you come across. One of them will be this one ATX hackerspace.

166
00:19:16,580 –> 00:19:24,680
Now this is basically the one that I showed you on the machine and this is the best and most reliable one despite a couple of errors.

167
00:19:24,680 –> 00:19:28,700
But this is the basis of many lists that you see on the internet.

168
00:19:28,700 –> 00:19:34,700
Now there is another one which I’ve looked at, which is in a strange way.

169
00:19:34,700 –> 00:19:41,570
It’s better, but it’s not better. It really doesn’t tell you a lot, even though it covers a lot more materials.

170
00:19:41,570 –> 00:19:48,720
List of woods that are safe, safety cut. It’s just non-information in a strange sort of way because look MDF.

171
00:19:48,720 –> 00:19:53,520
Laser power. Medium. Well, I always use high! Speed, low.

172
00:19:53,520 –> 00:20:00,290
Well, it’s as fast as it will go when you’re using high power. May char a lot when cutting.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

173
00:20:00,290 –> 00:20:07,760
No, it doesn’t if you do it properly, it’s not char, it’s colouration of the glue and the wood between them.

174
00:20:07,760 –> 00:20:12,650
They don’t char, they turn a brown. Contains a lot of glue.

175
00:20:12,650 –> 00:20:19,210
So avoid fumes. Sorry, you can’t avoid the fumes.

176
00:20:19,210 –> 00:20:23,590
The fumes are part of the product cutting. Do you understand what I mean?

177
00:20:23,590 –> 00:20:31,000
This is this is fairly meaningless information a lot of this stuff. List of plastics, list of plastics that are safe to cut.

178
00:20:31,000 –> 00:20:36,490
We’ve already shown that polycarbonate is not what I would call class as a safe material to cut.

179
00:20:36,490 –> 00:20:43,420
I did say that some people say that thin sheet polycarbonate cuts quite well.

180
00:20:43,420 –> 00:20:51,160
That may be true, but it’s the same chemical reaction that’s got to take place, when you cut polycarbonate.

181
00:20:51,160 –> 00:20:57,820
I don’t consider any polycarbonate as being safe to cut. List of plastics that are safe to cut: Teflon.

182
00:20:57,820 –> 00:21:02,080
No, PTFE is not a good material to cut. It is toxic.

183
00:21:02,080 –> 00:21:06,700
It produces toxic fumes, and it could also have a go at your lens as well.

184
00:21:06,700 –> 00:21:12,370
So why would you put Teflon in a list of plastics that are safe to cut?

185
00:21:12,370 –> 00:21:20,290
I’m puzzled. We’ll go and test a few materials ourselves in the next session when we talk about parameters and materials.

186
00:21:20,290 –> 00:21:25,360
Now this is very confusing because it says list of materials not to laser cut.

187
00:21:25,360 –> 00:21:31,030
I love this look, coniferous wood – uneven grain structure with soft and hard areas.

188
00:21:31,030 –> 00:21:36,340
Hard to find good power setting. Yes. So it’s hard to find a good power setting.

189
00:21:36,340 –> 00:21:40,090
That’s not a reason to not cut it. It’s just that

190
00:21:40,090 –> 00:21:45,940
it’s difficult to cut. Yeah. And then we’ve got this one here, oily and resinous wood – may catch fire.

191
00:21:45,940 –> 00:21:51,970
Well, it’ll only catch fire if you add too much heat in the wrong place and don’t put enough air assist into it.

192
00:21:51,970 –> 00:21:58,630
And then we’ve got hang on. This is true. ABS it makes dangerous cyanide gas true and melts.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

193
00:21:58,630 –> 00:22:03,190
True. Yeah, it’s safe to 3D print, which is not what we’re talking about here.

194
00:22:03,190 –> 00:22:07,690
Yes. You use abs for 3D printing because you’re only melting it.

195
00:22:07,690 –> 00:22:14,560
You’re not burning it. You’re not changing the structure of the material as you are with laser cutting.

196
00:22:14,560 –> 00:22:19,120
PVC emits pure chlorine gas, which ruins the optics.

197
00:22:19,120 –> 00:22:25,360
Well, it can do, but it’s more likely to corrode the metal of the machine and have a go at you. Thick

198
00:22:25,360 –> 00:22:31,060
Polycarbonate cuts poorly and could catch fire. Well, you’ve seen a demonstration of that today. It didn’t catch fire.

199
00:22:31,060 –> 00:22:37,380
It cuts poorly and produces a huge amount of fumes, which could be poisonous, but they don’t mention anything about that there.

200
00:22:37,380 –> 00:22:48,550
So there are two other things that you could check to be safe. One of them is, say, HDPE, H D P E molecule.

201
00:22:48,550 –> 00:22:55,310
And generally, you can get information from Wikipedia, chemical formula many kinds of polyethylene, most having a chemical formula

202
00:22:55,310 –> 00:23:00,790
(C2h4)n. And then the n means it repeats because it’s a long chain.

203
00:23:00,790 –> 00:23:08,020
Okay. Well, C2H4 no oxygen in it. C2 carbon and hydrogen.

204
00:23:08,020 –> 00:23:13,030
So that looks fairly benign. So we then ask a question polyethylene films.

205
00:23:13,030 –> 00:23:21,130
Is polyethylene toxic when burned? So it clearly says here there are only two products that are being produced carbon dioxide and water.

206
00:23:21,130 –> 00:23:26,570
Well, carbon dioxide is not deadly unless you breathe it completely.

207
00:23:26,570 –> 00:23:32,590
Now you can get carbon dioxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon dioxide is a suffocating gas.

208
00:23:32,590 –> 00:23:36,610
You can’t breathe it. It’s not a toxic gas.

209
00:23:36,610 –> 00:23:44,020
It just means that you can’t live on it. So provided you’re extracting the carbon dioxide with a good extraction system,

210
00:23:44,020 –> 00:23:48,210
then the only thing you’re left with is water, and that will probably just evaporate.

211
00:23:48,210 –> 00:23:54,020
And it says there is likely to be some carbon monoxide. You know, which again, is going to get extracted.

212
00:23:54,020 –> 00:24:01,520
It’s not deadly poisonous to you unless you are subjected to 100 percent carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide atmosphere.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards (Cont…)

213
00:24:01,520 –> 00:24:08,090
So this is basically the search protocol I go through whenever I want to use a material on my machine.

214
00:24:08,090 –> 00:24:16,400
I will check it out first and find out what the products of burning are likely to be. By a series of searches like you’ve seen me do here.

215
00:24:16,400 –> 00:24:24,170
You will eventually get to an answer. My general advice when you look at the internet is, you believe what’s written down.

216
00:24:24,170 –> 00:24:27,320
If somebody was standing in front of you giving you the same information,

217
00:24:27,320 –> 00:24:32,690
you would assess that person and say you’re trustworthy or you’re not trustworthy.

218
00:24:32,690 –> 00:24:39,230
I don’t believe your information or I do believe your information. You don’t have that choice when you read a document.

219
00:24:39,230 –> 00:24:46,930
So the only way to check out whether there’s credibility in a document is go and verify it in several places.

Transcript for Laser Cutting Material Hazards

Disclaimer

Last updated August 26, 2021

WEBSITE DISCLAIMER

The information provided by n-Deavor Limited, trading as Laseruser.com (“we,” “us” , or “our”) on (the “Site”) is for general informational purposes only. All information on the Site is provided in good faith, however we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information on the Site.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHALL WE HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF THE SITE OR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON
THE SITE. YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND YOUR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Site may contain (or you may be sent through the Site) links to other websites or content belonging to or originating from third parties or links to websites and features in banners or other advertising. Such external links are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness by us.

WE DO NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION OFFERED BY THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES LINKED THROUGH THE SITE OR ANY WEBSITE OR FEATURE LINKED IN ANY BANNER OR OTHER ADVERTISING.
WE WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

AFFILIATES DISCLAIMER

The Site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Our affiliates include the following:

  • makeCNC who provide Downloadable Patterns, Software, Hardware and other content for Laser Cutters, CNC Routers, Plasma, WaterJets, CNC Milling Machines, and other Robotic Tools. They also provide Pattern Files in PDF format for Scroll Saw Users. They are known for their Friendly and Efficient Customer Service and have a comprehensive back catalogue as well as continually providing New Patterns and Content.
  • Cloudray Laser: a world-leading laser parts and solutions provider, has established a whole series of laser product lines, range from CO2 engraving & cutting machine parts, fiber cutting machine parts and laser marking machine parts.