# @stem_antics on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DcEsN_0Rpnh
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69054403-stem-antics-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/1300ba0c19.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-15T19:57:49.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stem Antics (@stem_antics) — https://gondola.cc/stem_antics

## Caption

A lathe holds the workpiece. The laser does the cutting. Nothing touches the metal except light.

Rotary fibre laser cutting merges two machine architectures. A chuck and tailstock spin the tube on a driven A axis, exactly as a lathe would, while a linear Z carriage traverses a cutting head along the length. Instead of a carbide insert plunging into the material, a 1.06 micrometre fibre laser beam focuses to a spot around 30 to 100 micrometres across, delivering irradiance in the region of 10 megawatts per square centimetre. The steel does not shear. It vaporises and blows clear.

The mechanics of the cut are worth unpacking:

- Absorption at 1.06 micrometres is far higher in steel and aluminium than the 10.6 micrometres of legacy carbon dioxide lasers, which is why fibre sources displaced them for metal
- A coaxial assist gas jet, nitrogen at 15 to 25 bar or oxygen at lower pressure, ejects the molten kerf material downward
- Oxygen adds an exothermic iron oxidation reaction, accelerating thickness capability at the cost of an oxidised edge
- Nitrogen cuts inert and leaves a bright weldable edge with no post processing

Speed is the headline. A 6 kilowatt fibre source will run 2 millimetre mild steel tube at over 40 metres per minute of linear cut, with the rotary axis synchronised so that the resultant tool path traces a true helix, ellipse or intersection curve on the surface. Cutting a saddle joint where one tube meets another at 45 degrees becomes a coordinated four axis move rather than a fixture problem.

There is no tool wear, no cutting force, and therefore no deflection of thin walled sections. A 0.8 millimetre wall tube that would collapse under a parting blade survives untouched. Heat affected zones measure in tens of micrometres because the interaction time is measured in milliseconds.

Subtractive manufacturing spent a century getting harder. Then it stopped touching the part.

#stemantics #lasercutting #cncmachining #manufacturing #engineering

## Stats

- **Views:** 24,663
- **Likes:** 102
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 1

## Tags

engineering, lasercutting, cncmachining, manufacturing, stemantics

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