I’ve watched what seems like hundreds of videos trying to find inspiration and uses for the K40. One video came across my YouTube feed and some guy was using his to make gaskets for small some gasoline engines. It got me thinking this seems easily doable.
Anyone here make gaskets? If so what types of material have you tried?
I haven’t made gaskets but I have cut some PTFE washers.
You can work with most any material that will melt, vaporize or burn. The big exception is PVC which is very much discouraged to cut with a laser. It produces HCl gas which is very corrosive and is a very strong wet tissue irritant.
In regards to things that melt when you laser them, they can be problematic as the melt will tend to reseal behind the laser. You can over come this to a certain extent by piping a direct narrow stream of air on to the cut to help rapidly cool the melt before it reseals.
Funny you mentioned remelting. I came across this already. My wife makes artisanal soap and for the hell of it I took one of the bars and tried to engrave a logo on it. It reacted very much like what I’ve seen with a tattoo removal laser. The surface turned white like human skin does. But the melted soap quickly flowed back into the laser cut. A design remained but it wasn’t very pretty.