[JPMach]

With a good 80 watt laser how accurately could it cut 1/2" thick acrylic? I'm assuming would need long focal lenses to keep the sides somewhat square. Could it hold +/- .005" on size or is that out of the question?

Not concerned about sides being clear, parts are waterjet cut now, but need engraving too and would like it to be 1 setup, plus the thickness variations in the sheets make rotary engraving tedious having to measure every part first and sort in to thickness ranges.

[Exsecratio]

With a good 80 watt laser how accurately could it cut 1/2" thick acrylic?

Accuracy (as in repeatable size) it will be fine...

1/2 inch (12.7mm) acrylic on an 80 watt machine??

Sub 1mm per second speed at 95% power on a DC laser and probably twice that on a good RF.

Heat and distortion will be a problem in the kerf as a long focal length lens would need to have a FD in the feet distance rather than inches to keep the cut truly square.

A 150 watt RECI / EFR has a sensible limit of around 15mm acrylic (I did some this week)

You will get the waveguide benefit of using acrylic but 12.7mm is way over what would be considered "Normal" for an 80 watt tube.

I'm sure there will be people who cut 6 inch acrylic on their 40 watt laser...then again there are also people who have fallen from aircraft without parachutes and survived too

best wishes

Dave

[Rodney Gold]

Keep on waterjetting the thick stuff and buy a cheaper 60/80w laser for the engraving and cutting thinner stuff.
With a 50mm lens we can cut up to 8mm with an 80w RECI...thats about the limit for a decent product.
Spot size will be bigger than .005"