How to laser cut paper
A 50-watt laser cutting machine is about the size of a stand-up copier. Mirrors and lenses help direct the 50-watt CO2 laser tube to cut the paper to the desired width and length. The user is protected from the laser's cutting compartment by the top lid of the machine. The window is coated to protect the user's eyes from a stray laser beam. The laser cut is accurate down to one thousandth of an inch. The laser basically vaporizes the material as it cuts.
1
Paper can be laser-cut to odd lengths and widths. Program the laser machine by setting the power level from 1 percent to 100 percent. Set the focus 1/16 inch deeper than the thickness of the paper to be cut, or cut one pass, refocus and cut another pass.
2
Set the Pulses Per Inch (PPI) to determine how the laser will burn through the paper, leaving a clean, consistent cut. A setting of 1,000 PPI works well for cutting paper.
3
Determine the number of passes needed to cut through the entire thickness of the paper on the machine. The more passes you make, the deeper the cut. Once you have loaded the machine with paper and adjusted all the settings by practice cuts, you save the settings that work best for each situation.
