I know veggie tanned leather is safe to cut on the lasers but what about white leather?
Is it chrome tanned or synthetic?
I don’t know how it was made white.
When in doubt, no. If you don’t know what kind of leather (or possibly PVC based pleather), then I wouldn’t laser it.
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This is an excellent question!
Pretty much ALL the exhaust off of laser cutting is toxic. Acrylic fumes, plywood smoke, regular leather, none of it is good. Formaldehyde for sure, probably another 1000 chemicals. You don’t want to breathe any of it.
The fairly unique concern is chrome-tanned leather uses chromium, an element with many toxic forms, including the notoriously dangerous hexavalent chromium.
I can’t say. I don’t know what compounds of chromium would form, hexavalent chromium may not be present for all I know. Or how it stacks up vs acrylic fumes etc.
We have cut it. With Tarkin’s high power, it cuts so quickly there is no thermal damage (browning, hardening, cracking) at all. It cuts at really high speeds, over 100mm/s for 5 oz IIRC. Being leather, the thickness is going to vary across the hide. So you might slow it down over the fastest speed that cuts through a test section completely. But, if you have a part that didn’t cut all the way through, note that it’s leather so just finish cutting all the way through with a box cutter or scissors. You won’t lose the material.
The edge is dirty with loose, fine jet black soot that easily comes off exposing a good cut edge. The soot edge transferring to people and being absorbed through the skin or ingested as traces would be the concern. I would definitely say wash your hands after cleaning it.
I should note that simply leaving the lid closed for tens of seconds after cutting is over will mean very little of fumes will remain when opened. Presuming you don’t try to cut with the very front edge of the machine, as the air assist may jet smoke out of the machine from under the lid.
Would particulate of chromium get stuck on the honeycomb and somehow rub off later and get absorbed through the skin? Or, more likely, wearing the leather or being exposed while cleaning the soot off the edges (wash hands afterwards, wearing gloves would be a good idea too). That still seems farfetched that it could happen at any significant rate, but I don’t know. Chrome-tanned leather itself isn’t supposed to be dangerous to wear on skin. Again, all the black stuff on the honeycomb from everything else, no one thinks that stuff is nontoxic. One reason we don’t put food in a laser cutter, and would presumably wash a cutting board before using if you burn a logo into it.
A reminder- “imitation/simulated/synthetic leather” is often vinyl, aka PVC. PVC is prohibited because it’s 60% chlorine by weight, and forming toxic and corrosive compounds in the fumes. Leaving the lid closed to purge it isn’t avoiding the problem that these fumes corrode the metal components of the laser. Esp the steel honeycomb, which is not painted. Can probably damage some plastics and the bearings too.
I have seen some labeled “PU (polyurethane) leather”. PU is supposed to laser cut very well! When in doubt, a flame test can ALWAYS be used to detect the presence of chlorine on any sort of suspect material. There is some stripped solid copper wire for this in the cabinet, but you’ll need a lighter.
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@dannym thank you so much for that answer.
I’m sure this material is leather and not manufactured. The underside is suede, it smells great, and it doesn’t catch fire or melt when a flame is held to it.
I decided to buy some similar weight veg tanned leather and get experience with that before working with the white leather.