Best Method To Cut Carbon Fiber

Can carbon fiber panel be laser cut ?
I know that it can be water-jet or router cut.
Regards,
John

I took some .060 carbon fiber to a place that laser cut it but most shops will not do it because the gas is toxic. They had a large laser that was like a water jet table. The problem is the carbon ignites.. I have herd that the only real way to do this is with a laser that is in a vacuum so flames will not have fuel..

Thanks for the info
Regards,
Giovanni

I mill quite a bit of CF with my router and i use these bits:
5x 0.08" Carbide PCB End Mill Engraving Bit CNC 2.0 T22 | eBay

High revs on the spindle(I use 24000 rpm), it makes clean sharp cuts.
The dust is quite bad so I have the router enclosed in a box.

Waterjet can be troublesome since it tends to delaminate the CF when water penetrates the different layers.

I too am interested in buying a small bench top machine to cut out parts for RC hobbies. I was thinking of using a LASER machine but this thread is quickly convincing me otherwise...shucks!
Is there any alternatives for cutting CF besides a router...that is...something reasonably priced for a small hobbyist to play with.

Well, a dremel and a cuttingdisk works fine if you want to cut CF as cheap as possible(by hand), hacksaw works to. Watch out for the dust though!

A CNC Laser would be far more expensive to build than a CNC router with a simple spindle on it. On my first machine a milled quite a bit of CF with a cheap wood router($30) mounted as a spindle, but since they are air cooled they will suck up the CF dust and fail eventually.
I now use a watercooled VFD spindle.

In my opinion a CNC router is the cheapest an simplest way to mill CF automaticly, if you are crafty you could buld one for less than $200.
Search for scrapped laserprinters and salvage the steppers, buy a CNC controller of ebay, 3A will do, use ACME leadscrews and flexible couplings from Ebay, build our own linear rails from pipe and rollerblade bearings and a piece of MDF and your good to go.

Sweet. I'm so going to do this. Now you said it could possibly be done for as little as $200. If my budget was closer to say $500, what upgrades would you focus on first in the homebuilt design mentioned?

I used the JGRO design om my first machine, plans are available here on the forum.
I used it quite alot but after a while I wanted something a bit more powerful for milling aluminium.

I built a new redesigned router similar to the JGRO design but beefier and more ridgid.
I used proper linear rails and ballscrews, a watercooled 2,2 kw VFD spindle. I made more parts on the router from aluminium instead of MDF.

The weakest part of the JGRO design are the homebuilt linear rails(pipe and rollerblade bearings), a first upgrade would be to replace them with proper ones(SBR20).
I bought mine from:
linearmotionbearings store on eBay!