
Material removal is halted when the laser is applied to a clean surface because it only sublimates rust. Sublimation is the act of changing the state of metal to a gas form. Skipping the liquid phase. The device can be set for a certain depth to skim away surface rust, paint and filler leaving a prepared surface for work. What would have normally taken someone hours to clean and prepare for welding or painting is now done in no time at all.

What makes this laser device even better is the fact that it has an onboard Hoover system that immediately sucks up the vaporized rust making the entire rust removal process clean and simple. Unfortunately, there is a rather large drawback, the cost. This state of the art device is not sitting on some retail shelf somewhere for $100. The cheapest version on the market is a much smaller, less powerful 20-watt unit that starts at around $80,000. And the thousand-watt unit will set you back nearly a half a million dollars. So it's fair to say that laser rust removal is probably out of the reach of most panel beaters and mechanics trying to restore cars. But I recall in the 80s that computer CD-ROM drives were selling for $50,000 and it was just a few years later that we were installing them in PCs for under a thousand. So give it a few years and I bet you'll be able to buy this device at your local hardware store for Father's Day.
DIHORSE laser cleaning machine for metal and nonmetal: