Cutting with a 20 watt fiber?

[Jacob John]

I know a 30 watt can cut, albeit slowly. Interested in cutting .7mm sterling silver. I've been told that it's possible but I'm skeptical. I've been told that 20 watt was the minimum, and that 10 watt is impossible. I know someone with a 50 watt and she said it's like slicing through butter with her 50 watt. What say all of you guinea pigs, errrrr I mean, fiber laser engravers.

[John Lifer]

Send me a piece and I'll let you know I have to tried silver. Don't know why it wouldn't. My issue is warpage with thin stuff.

[Jacob John]

Send me a piece and I'll let you know I have to tried silver. Don't know why it wouldn't. My issue is warpage with thin stuff.

Is it merely a matter of speed? I was told by a rep that a a 10 won't do it at all, and anything about a 20 watt is about a much faster cut. My friend with the 50 watt says that hers is really fast at cutting .7mm sterling.

[Kev Williams]

A guy brought me a .010" thick (.25mm) stainless sawblade, he wanted a smaller diameter disk cut from it. Between the slag and the heat buildup, the thing ended up being warped, oval shaped and even after several minutes of the laser (30w) circling, it the slag kept welding it back to together behind the beam.

This is just conjecture, but it seems that cutting thru any cuttable-by-fiber metal is possible, but it's only going to happen by creating an aritificial draft "V" cut, narrowing down to a single or double pass that will finally pentetrate the metal. Another factor is, a galvo fiber is going to bevel-cut anything away from dead-center, which is virtually anything but a single straight line drawn thru dead center. Any cuts away from center will have tapered edges due to the beam's angle.

I've engraved sterling silver rings twice now, 3 last Friday. Silver is only slightly easier to deep engrave than stainless. And like anything other metal, it slags up...

[Jacob John]

I'm likely going to end up with a 20 watt because of a deal on the system and I can't wait to start experimenting. I really wish though that we could put together a spreadsheet that contained all that we are learning.

[John Lifer]

Me any my tablet..... Geez I'm going to have to stop posting with it. If it does correct my word, it inserts the wrong word. Kev answered. Nothing I've tried to cut thru that is thin has worked successfully.
I'll just put it that way.