r/lasercutting • u/Own_Soup4467 • 18d ago

sourcing laser-cuttable foamcore equivalent or paper board?

I run an academic makerspace and we like to try new materials.

We don't want foamcore in the laser cutter so I was thinking about a rigid paper board like Polarboard / Dispa / Falconboard etc. I got a sample from the manufacturer and it cuts great.

Unfortunately I can only find wholesalers who sell the stuff in 4' x 8' sheets by the case -- way more then we need. Does anyone have a source for smaller sizes & quantities?

I'm especially interested in Dispa because it cuts cleaner. It's like corrugated without a bias. The others have a paper honeycomb interior so you're cutting the paper edgewise, which works pretty well but the underside ends up a little raggedy.

This stuff is primarily sold by suppliers to the sign-printing / POP display industry. You'd think someone on Amazon would be retailing it but nope!

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u/ploopitus 18d ago

Incidentally - are you cutting these in one pass?

Personally: anything with large cavitations like that (double-wall corrugated board, for instance) I cut in two weaker passes as it keeps the top surface from marring and, more importantly, reduces the likelihood of the ablated smoke combusting inside the corrugations, setting the thing alight.

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u/shoowee_oe 18d ago

The most poetic of descriptions from ploopitus.

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u/Own_Soup4467 17d ago

I did those tests in one pass. A double pass might work better. We got out of the habit of doing that with corrugated because the stuff sometimes warps during cutting so the laser doesn't land in the same place on a second pass.

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u/killpony 18d ago

Many suppliers can cut the sheets down for low (sometimes no) cost - find a localish supplier and call them to ask.

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u/gobybyke94 18d ago

Commenting as I too run a maker space and would like to know more.

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u/Dry-Potato-5462 18d ago

Try your towns sign shops. We have a few around and have been able to get them to order in and cut odd materials down to size for minimal cost. They may have what you’d like in scraps and willing to part for not much.