Hi Matt Acrylic is a unique material in that it is the only onrethat cuts by change of state rather than change of chemisrty. In the same way that H2O exists in 3 main states, solid liquid and vapour, so does acrylic. Its solid at room temprature but at 160C it changes to liquid and at 200C it boils and vaporizes just like water.. It take a lot of energy to change material from one state to another (look how long it takes to boil a pan dry) whereas set fire to a piece of paper and the chemical reaction happens quickly. Cutting (more accurately ...evaporating) acrylic will always be a slow process and in comparison , for example, you can cut wood at more than twice the speed. When cutting acylic OBSERVATION is most important.. Light travels in straight lines and it is light energy that is eveporating the acrylic. Watch your cuts and observe how the bottom of the cut drags behind the beam entry point. If light travels in straight lines, how can this be possible?. No you are not defying the laws of physics, it means you are no longer evaporating the "dragging" part of the cut that is not upright.with the laser beam. Instead, you are evaporating the curved bit with hot gasand so it is totally out of control and is the cause of your frilly cut on the bottom edge. It is a bad idea to do two cuts, Look at the turbulent gas flow and jagged bottom to the first cut along with the drag by running faster.. take a look at this short video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d99gq6mrzdzGqX0.html You should ideally try for a single pass cut even if it is slow I have a tube with similar power to you and I can cut 20mm acrylic with a 63.5mm lens at 1mm/s To summerize. If the beam drags then the speed is too fast. A 4" lens may not give you the gain everyone believes. The simple rule for cutting is "the greater the light intensity the faster damage will happen". Degrade the intensity with a longer focal length lens and you may cut deeper but it will be at the expense of cutting speed... Try it for yourself.

Waiting for a new video! Thanks for all these helpful videos!

Thanks for sharing.

This a nice belt laser machine, and now we have a screw laser machine, that can cut 30mm acrylic with smooth and bright edges

Hi Matt, great video & happy to have discovered your channel as I've just picked up a similar machine to play around with at the end of the year. Have you considered changing to a lens with a different focal length? From what I gather getting a longer focal distance will give a longer distance that the beam will be 'in focus' meaning you should be able to cut thicker material without needing to run at 80% power. But that means that you lose detail on engraving and thinner cuts, so maybe we change out the lens when we need to cut thick stuff, leave it as is for everyday use. Totally don't know if I'm barking up the wrong tree or not, but could be worth checking out. Cheers!

10 years ago I used to cut 10mm on a 30watt co2!

The motor of your machine is it a stepper motor or a servo motor? I’m wondering if it makes any difference when cutting acrylics. Thanks for your video.

Great test to show the abilities of the machine. One question. The edges don't seem to be perpendicular (90 degrees) are they?

Hey, love your videos. I am wanting to get once of these machines but couldn't find much about them, finding your videos has out me at ease. I am just wondering why do you place the acrylic on top of those silver rings rather than just putting it straight on the honeycomb base?

Great info. I am looking at an upgrade to my laser capability. I currently only have a 7.5w diode laser on my CNC Router. All its good for is engraving my logo on the back of my jobs. I see VEVOR have a 100w unit at a reasonable price. I was thinking one of the high powered Diode lasers that are on the market. But the price point on the VEVOR 100w seems like a good deal. Maybe to good. How have you found VEVOR to deal with?

hello :) I have 5 questions, if you don't mind: 1: how small are the smalles holes or rectangles that you can cut out? 2: how thin are the cuts in PMMA? 3: is it possible to, for example, "etch" 1mm deep into thicker PMMA? (for example make sag holes/rectangles that remove 1mm from a 3mm PMMA plate without cutting through? 4: making PMMA areas "blind" is the same as engraving? can you vary the percentage of the mattified area? 5: I know there are small desktop plotters for this, but can you cut plastic foil (the colored foils on paper that you can place on PMMA plates) the same way with the laser? Thanks for a quick reply and with best regards!

Hi,sir! Nice video. Can You cut 6 mm or ticker plywood or MDF with this laser?

Hi mate, I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and recently I bought vevor 100w co2 machine. How your laser going. I’m having really hard time with it. Parameters are all screwed up. Have you faced any similar issues yet? Thanks

Nice man! Can’t you just do several passes to get a cut, or does that risk melting the acrylic or a fire?

Hello. I’m pretty new to this. I have a question: where did you focus the beam, on the surface or closer? (Somewhat in the material)? Because 10mm is pretty thick

Is your air assist turning on when you start? Acrylic cuts cleaner with very little blow...

Hi, what’s this machine called?

80mm at 2mm a sec I bet the cut perspex is really warm LOL

how about cutting 20mm plywood, to shows us its possible, as the manufacturer claims?

try lowering your focal point 2 - 3 mm

You talk about only 10mm cutting with 80watt laser long time bfore i cutt 20mm with the help of 80watt laser in 1 pass