Polystyrene "glass" safe to laser?

[Anders Troberg]

All sources I find for polystyrene seems to be for foam or other variants, but this looks like ordinary acrylic. Safe, or will it destroy the universe?

[Pete Cyr]

It catches fire quickly, burns rapidly, it melts, and only thin pieces cut.
This is the #1 material that causes laser fires.
You can cut this stuff and the universe will be safe if you cut thin pieces and watch closely.

[Anders Troberg]

I just tried it, and it didn't cut well. As you say, it's prone to flare-ups, which causes soot. It also gets soft from relatively little heat, which means that things quickly started to bend and warp. You also need a decent separation between cuts, 2 mm was not enough, it caused flareups and damaged nearby parts.

4mm thickness, by the way.

Not worth the trouble, won't cut it again. I'm still alive, though.

[Gene Uselman]

We actually use a lot of styrene, makes cheap and flexible signage, and we laser it for paint stencils. I stock .060 and .125". We also make one time use shipping shims for calipers that are shipped to Mexico for some reason. I have made thousands of them but passed the job off to another customer, it does really stink and the blown out residue from the cuts is nasty. I always get a melted bead on the lower surface which can be removed easily with a card scraper if necessary [it wasn't for the shims].

[Anders Troberg]

I think that if you cut large pieces, the problems will be less, but I still got a "melt welt" on the bottom side, and it occasionally melted together again after the laser had passed.