Max thickness of laser cutting plywood

The Hackspace Woodworking
1

Hi all,

I am hoping to build a pedal plane for my daughter and would like to try and use Hackspace Manchester to help me cut some of the parts.

I am not a member yet but just looking into joining. I just wondered if anyone knew the maximum thickness the laser cutter and cut of plywood. The parts I need to cut need to be made from 9mm ply so wondered if it could cut this?

Thanks in advance.

Jon Chip

2

Hi Jon!

I think 9mm will be pushing it for our laser. Even if it gets through it won’t give you a clean edge on the cut. But there are a couple of options -

We could use our CNC mill to cut it instead. I think this is a better option and will give a much nicer edge.
Or, you could cut two panels of 5mm plywood on the laser cutter and glue them together. That’s what plywood is, after all.

Do you know the dimensions of the biggest part you need to cut? It would help us to figure out what tools we can use.

Jim

3

Hi Jim,

Many thanks for your response.

The largest parts are the width of the wings which are just over 1 m by around 20 cm, but I appreciate I may have to modify plans to create them in parts.

What dimensions can the CNC mill cut?

Thanks for your help.

Jon

4

Hi Jon,

I’m not a user of the wood CNC router, but it looks like about 600x400mm. Hopefully someone from the woodwork group can confirm. The laser cutter also has a 600x400mm working area.

Jim

5

Evening I’ve just joined I think, do you have the design on like a cad drawing ?