Laser cutters and complacency - danger.

Well, complacency got the better of me and I left my laser cutter unattended while cutting acrylic.

Not sure what's occurred, belts stopped moving, air assist failed, but the acrylic went up.

In about 3 minutes, the material ignited, filled the garage with toxic smoke, and the flames reached the 5m ceiling and melted the roof insulation. Thankfully nothing else went up.

 

Of course it only happens when you're not paying attention - Murphy's Law.

Apart from the obvious, thankfully you've come out relatively unscathed!

 

Woowee. Very fortunate to get out of it with as little damage as you did. Bet you won't do that one again!

 

That was a close call, not good but you got out lucky

 

I logged on now to see latest in your laser thread Soc.

Glad no one was hurt!

 

I had a similar close call whilst cutting rubber in the same style of machine in 2017ish. Cheap and cheerful but definitely needs oversight!

 

At least it happened in winter and kept the place warm.

 

Oh wow, super lucky the damage was so contained!
Glad nothing else (the car!) got damaged, and nobody hurt.

Does this mostly write the machine off, or is it repairable?

 

See the little emblaser in the corner - not getting much love, lol.

Did you catch this, or did it self extinguish?

 

Machine was completely written off. The acrylic I was cutting, the acrylic protection panels, any circuit boards all melted and melted any alu parts too.

Horrifically, it was self extinguished by the time we found it. We had no idea at all.

I've found some heat activated self-dispensing self contained fire extinguishers that will sit above the replacement unit. It won't save the machine but will ensure the shed doesn't go up...


I slept real bad for the following few nights

 

what are you looking at, Blazecut?

 

Omtech pronto is the leading replacement currently....

 

sorry, I meant the suppression system.

 

Something was looking down on you!

Might also be good to upgrade your cameras, too, they might be able to alert you to movement/fire if they have some monitoring smarts, or integrate a smart fire alarm.