fiber laser or DPSS YAG under 5000$, diy? chinese?

[pierantoine]

Hi,

It's christmas so everything is possible..
I'm thinking of adapting a yag or fiber laser into a CO2 chinese cnc, for cutting metal, 0.1mm (0.004 inch) of stainless steel or Titanium.

a pulsed fiber laser would be ideal (long life etc..) but i havent' found product that cost under 12 000 $

I don't want to use flash lamps but a 50W diode pumping a rod could be a good solution..

if you know DIY projects or commercial parts that can help i'm very interested..
thank you in advance for your help

P-A

[Litografa]

DPSS 50 Wt will be not enough to cut this materials with acceptable quality of cut. I have did tests

[pierantoine]

It can, both yag and fiber, according to this article:

http://www.lasers.org.uk/paperstore/Cutting3.pdf

Note they use 20W peak power pulses, and monomode beams, and 6 bar O2 gas assist.

[Litografa]

Yes, they are right Now problem is how fit this tech specs to $5000
There is one way to fit your amount - buy something from China which is in mass production. Unfortunately chinese manufacturers do not produce in big quantities lasers with 20W peak power pulses, and monomode beams. And 6 Bar O2 system will cost not small amount. But this is not main problem. I am personally spent over 2 month on same task. You CAN CUT with 50 Wt DPSS 0,1 mm steel even without addition of O2 BUT speed of cut will be not effective economically and quality of cut will be disaster. We have got best result of cutting quality ONLY with 20 passes cutting I will try to find pictures on Monday in office and will put here.