# Can you cut carbide or high speed steel with lasers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 25, 2004, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026 "2004-09-25T10:43:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026/1 "2004-09-25T10:43:58Z")

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Googling and visiting mfr webistes hasn’t given me any satisfactory answers. Can it be done?

(Need not be mounted on head of friggin’ shark)

capn

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**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026/2 "2004-09-25T14:45:26Z")

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Yes. The hardness of a steel is not a significant factor in cutting with laser or plasma processes. I could see water cutting being more difficult, or at least requiring a harder ceramic in the stream, and of course physical cutting is very difficult.

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026/3 "2004-09-25T17:30:38Z")

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- 
  - 
    - Well… water jets are really just for sheet-cutting, not doing 3-D machining. And carbide and HSS don’t come in sheets, not commonly. So waterjets are probably not suitable.

- Lasers can do either sheet-cutting or 3-D work, depending on the setup–but many places doing complex stuff in metals prefer [EDM](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=electro+discharge+machining&btnG=Search) because it avoids heating up the work.  
~

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**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cut-carbide-or-high-speed-steel-with-lasers/266026/4 "2004-09-26T09:36:54Z")

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Did some Googling about EDM - this looks like it might be more versatile to us than laser cutting.

Anyone ever use one?

Thanks crew.  
capn