Cutting cedar?

[grahamshere]

I was wondering if some one could tell me if a laser could cut 1" western red cedar. Thanks Graham

[apriorius]

It can be cut with a laser, but you'll need a very powerful one to produce asseptable results. The smaller 40-120 watt machines commonly discussed around here would not cut any wood that thick.

[grahamshere]

Thanks for the reply Apriorius, Not even a 120 watt machine would cut that, even if it did it in multiple passes? If not then that means one of the big boy that cost,s more than a house. Graham

[apriorius]

Well, I have an 80W but it is a glass tube so maybe it's 80 and maybe it's a bit less since they can sometimes be optimistic. RF tubes tend to be overpowered from what I read, so *perhaps* you could get through 1" cedar with it in a couple passes. I can tell you your edges will be very charred and the result will likely be unacceptable.

Also, make note that some woods simply don't like to be cut. I can go through 1/4" maple no problem. However, the same thickness in phillipene mahogany (luan) is neigh impossible. My theory is that the wood is much more porus with fairly large holes running along with the grain. I think that when the laser hits the voids in the wood the laser diffracts or something.

Anyway, my complete pulled out of my a** guess would be that you'd need at least 400-500 watts to get through something like that cleanly, and you'd need some advanced optics to boot.