So I see blue lasers that say they are 10w or 15w...And I thought the diodes only go up to 6w or 7w.... Are they advertising the peak power? Or pulsed? And not continuous? I'd like to cut thin plywood, what laser would be best for that?
Usually the higher-powered diode lasers can't sustain that power. So don't expect a 15w laser to cut twice as fast as a 7w laser. And certainly not 4 times as fast as 3.5w laser. If you want to cut, your best bet is to buy a CO2 laser system. Diode lasers are really just too weak. They are better for engraving. You could cut very thin materials if you take enough passes. But the edge will be lousy and it would be much faster just to cut with a spindle. Engraving is where they shine because they allow very fine-grained pictures to be permanently burned into a wide variety of materials.
Hmm that's a bummer. I have a spindle, but was thinking about a laser for some finer cuts. Diode lasers seem cleaner, easier to build than a CO2 one.
