Laser Cutting Fun with Felt

[Tim Mellor]

** First off MOST FELT IS NOT MADE FROM WOOL !!! Know your supplier and if they can't tell you it is likely something else. Not necessarily a bad thing as 'some' of it can be Acrylic based but be careful. 'eBay' Wool won't in most cases be 'wool'. Heated dyes could also present a health issue too.

So onto my first experiments this morning with some Merino Wool based felt. Uncompressed it is about 1.4mm and squashed in the jaws of my Calipers about 1mm. Random pick of power at 30% and 20mm/s is likely a bit high or slow based on the edge so if you have a setting for chipboard or 1mm cardboard head there for a start. Smells like burning wool (strange that) when being cut and a small odor is left by the cut. I will have a bit more of a play with faster and less power in the next week or so.

Feeling a little brave I thought I would see how it engraves and surprisingly well is the answer, the Logo in the photo below has very fine details and is about 50x27mm done at 10% and 400mm/sec. It is visibly more see through on the engraved area under strong light and no show through on the reverse side. Less power again seems to be needed.

Pieces shown are the lining for my living hinge Glasses case.