I cut a 25.4 mm circle on my laser and measured the od and id. The kerf was something in the neighborhood of .61 mm. The od was 25.05 and id was 25.66. This is the cut quality you can achieve with dialing in your settings.
You would need a lot more watts to touch 3/8” al. Al acts like a heat sink and requires more power.
Does this mean we won’t be allowed to cut brass or copper on the new laser?
At this time it does appears that those will not be allowed.
Love those sooty hands!
I look forward to signing up for the class when things get sorted. I just finished a Solidworks class at acc and could really use this for my crazy ideas.
Maybe we could incentivize donation by offering early/first access to the class for the machine to members who donate? Just a thought for if funding needs to be recouped while organizing a class is in progress!
@drew.hynes, check out the info on the fundraiser here. Donors contributing $500+ will get early/first access to classes and extended booking hours for the first month that the machine is online. 
I must have missed that! Thanks!
Our apologies for the long delay in updating you as to the status of the fiber laser. We realize there is great excitement about our recent purchase and everyone is ready to start slicing up some metal!
Our first hurdle was fundraising. We’d like to thank all those who have generously donated to the fundraiser thus far. Our unmatched contribution total to date is $9,390 towards our $20,000 goal! As a reminder, we have an $11,000 matching donor pledge, so every dollar donated can be doubled until we reach that amount.
We are so close! If you would like to help us reach this goal, you can contribute to the Fiber Laser Fundraiser.
Donors that contribute $100 or more will be honored on a plaque in the lobby using the donor levels listed below. Donors contributing $500 or more will receive priority on machine training and extended booking time limits (from 4.5 hours to 6.5 hours) for the first month once the machine is fully set up.
Our second hurdle is location. Unlike the lasers we use in the Laser Room, this laser requires safety glasses for all users within 10 feet of the laser. These are not ordinary safety glasses, but are glasses specifically designed to block out this laser’s frequency. This laser can and will cause serious eye injury to unprotected eyes. Because of this, it will need to be encased in a room with solid walls and doorways designed to protect members without glasses who might be in the vicinity of the laser from being accidentally injured.
If you have been in the shop lately, you will have noticed how tight the current layout is with the Metal and Wood CNCs. We can’t simply put up a wall around the laser in its current configuration. In addition, we need to make sure we can get large sheets of materials in and out of both CNC machines. We’re sorting out potential changes in Asmbly’s footprint which would affect the amount of space we can allocate to the fiber laser room. Our goal is to have more information to share with members about this by early March.
Acquiring a fiber laser has been a long standing goal for Asmbly and we’re grateful to the community for rallying to get us closer to having this offering. A machine of this caliber and condition does not come up in the resale market often, so getting it purchased and onsite is a big achievement. Thanks for hanging tight with us while we bring this machine online with functionality and the safety of members at the forefront.
Any updates on this?
Unfortunately, not at this time.