Cutting Out Patterns With A Diode Laser....

J. Keeton

J. Keeton

Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
1,209
So this is a question I've wondered for a while... How useful would one of those DIY diode CNC lasers be fore leather working... I like drawing a bunch of my designs for sheaths in CAD already since I like being able to print them out cleanly and also store them for the future digitally. On top of that I gotta say that I'm not a pro using a head knife like Horsewright Horsewright ... lol. I'm sure others may be wondering about these lasers and their capabilities here, so I wanted to start this thread.

Since this question has been in my mind for a while, I jumped on the opportunity to play with one of these lasers when XTOOL offered to send me one for a review on my YouTube channel. And so far, I haven't been disappointed with it's ability on leather.

Cutting: It makes easy work of cutting 8-9oz W&C leather... I'd advise having air assist and a honey comb table

Engraving: I will say that I think I may continue to use a stamp for my makers mark on the back of the sheath... since the laser will cut the leather instead of imprinting it. It does make a nice engrave at times so maybe I just need to play some more with the settings.

Other Thoughts: I think it works pretty darn good for the task of cutting... If you have a batch of sheaths you're working on that are all identical, this could save some serious time. I'm not quite sure how the slightly burnt edges are going to finish up... But I'll report back on that.

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Below is the video review I did... I have this link jumping straight to the part where I cut the leather sheath pattern at 13:17

13:17 - Cutting Leather



Cheers yall,
James
 
J. Keeton said:
So this is a question I've wondered for a while... How useful would one of those DIY diode CNC lasers be fore leather working... I like drawing a bunch of my designs for sheaths in CAD already since I like being able to print them out cleanly and also store them for the future digitally. On top of that I gotta say that I'm not a pro using a head knife like Horsewright Horsewright ... lol. I'm sure others may be wondering about these lasers and their capabilities here, so I wanted to start this thread.

Since this question has been in my mind for a while, I jumped on the opportunity to play with one of these lasers when XTOOL offered to send me one for a review on my YouTube channel. And so far, I haven't been disappointed with it's ability on leather.

Cutting: It makes easy work of cutting 8-9oz W&C leather... I'd advise having air assist and a honey comb table

Engraving: I will say that I think I may continue to use a stamp for my makers mark on the back of the sheath... since the laser will cut the leather instead of imprinting it. It does make a nice engrave at times so maybe I just need to play some more with the settings.

Other Thoughts: I think it works pretty darn good for the task of cutting... If you have a batch of sheaths you're working on that are all identical, this could save some serious time. I'm not quite sure how the slightly burnt edges are going to finish up... But I'll report back on that.

-------------------

Below is the video review I did... I have this link jumping straight to the part where I cut the leather sheath pattern at 13:17

13:17 - Cutting Leather



Cheers yall,
James
Click to expand...
I'm interested in this. Thanks.

How does the laser work for punching stitching holes? is that an option?

thanks again.
 
tinfoil hat timmy said:
I'm interested in this. Thanks.

How does the laser work for punching stitching holes? is that an option?

thanks again.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried that yet, but thought about it. I'm not sure what the smallest hole this thing could punch would be. I'm thinking that the amount of time you'd have to settle in one spot to burn all the way though would cause the hole to be too large in OD... but I'm not sure... still need to test it.
 
J. Keeton said:
I haven't tried that yet, but thought about it. I'm not sure what the smallest hole this thing could punch would be. I'm thinking that the amount of time you'd have to settle in one spot to burn all the way though would cause the hole to be too large in OD... but I'm not sure... still need to test it.
Click to expand...
that's why I'm subbed to the thread.

🤗🤔🤗
 
As a hobby sheath maker I spend a lot of time on leatherworker.net. From what I've seen most people with lasers haven't been happy with trying to cut their pieces. The burnt edges take a lot of work to clean up. Many people have had better luck using the laser to mark and lay out cut and stitch lines. It seems to me like that could be a big time saver in itself. Best of luck to you in your trials.
 
akguy59 said:
As a hobby sheath maker I spend a lot of time on leatherworker.net. From what I've seen most people with lasers haven't been happy with trying to cut their pieces. The burnt edges take a lot of work to clean up. Many people have had better luck using the laser to mark and lay out cut and stitch lines. It seems to me like that could be a big time saver in itself. Best of luck to you in your trials.
Click to expand...
10-4, I'll report back how it does on the edges. They seem pretty darn clean
 
I ran a hole test today.. just for you tinfoil hat timmy tinfoil hat timmy !! Pretty impressed that it was able to do 0.02'' holes...







That is a John James Saddlers Harness Needle (Medium - Size 002)
 
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The dimensions of the laser spot is - 0.08 x 0.1 mm... So I may be able to go smaller and just blow though a 0.01-ish hole. The fit on the 0.02'' hole was snug for the needle, seems about the right tightness for a saddle stitch... maybe a little on the loose side. I'd get less burn if I spaced them out a little.. they're all spaced 0.03'' here.
 
Interesting I will keep following along. The black on the edges can be removed to some extent by dampening and then sanding. No time savings there though.
 
Horsewright said:
Interesting I will keep following along. The black on the edges can be removed to some extent by dampening and then sanding. No time savings there though.
Click to expand...
I'm curious on how they'll finish out... I normally darken my edges anyways.
 
I was stoked when I saw you cutting leather with your laser. That has been on my list to try out for a while. Like you, most of my design work is done in CAD so it makes sense to cut as much out as I can with a machine.

I was hoping my 10W would cut leather as clean as the 20W you have with just an extra pass or two. Not so lucky. It takes 4 passes (200mm/min) at 100% power on the 10W version to cut 8-9oz veg tanned leather and then I'm still left with a bit of a frayed bottom edge. It does certainly make cleaner inside radius cuts than I can by hand.

Stitch hole results were poor on the 10W.

I might be able to do the initial passes to get through most of the leather, then do a final pass on the bottom of the cut at a slower speed to get through that last bit. Might need to experiment some more or maybe make a run over to Tandy and grab some slightly lighter leather.

Reuben.
 






Well I'm very very happy with how the sheath turned out.... The edges turned out just like any of my other edges do after I cleaned them, and leveled em. The MAJOR advantage to me other than time was how perfectly the sheath lined up... This made the clean up and leveling of the 3 pieces very quick.

Just to re-iterate the first think you have to do after cutting out is take some saddle soap and a paper towel and run over the edges to get any soot off... After that the rest of the process was the same.

The cleanlyness of the cut also produced very little fraying... this aided in cleanup and finishing as well

yeah I'm a fan
 
That is really cool
 
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