Laser Material Guidelines

The goal of this page is to give you a good starting place for speed/power settings for various materials. The values were determined by looking at the average values from the laser logs (which is one reason why you should log your work).

If you see something that looks really out of range with its neighbors, probably bad data entry, so use some critical thinking skills. I tried to do some basic sanitation of the data, but no promises on completeness.

Also, this won't be well formatted because it's too much trouble for me process and gather the data, and then write automation to deal with wiki table formatting.

Materials

This is a partial list of the materials that can and can not be used for various purposes in the lasers. Please, pay attention and if you have questions ask. Several of the forbidden materials are forbidden for a few really important reasons:

• They produce side effects that are corrosive/destructive to the laser
• They produce side effects that are poisonous and potentially deadly to humans
• They do not absorb infrared and may reflect too much light back into the laser

Approved

• Acrylic
• Anodized aluminum
  • Etching only
  • No cutting
• Corrugated cardboard
• Glass, etching only
• Leather, naturally dyed
• MDF
• Paper
• Plywood
• Fabric

Forbidden / Incapable

• Metal
• Skin/flesh
• Vinyl
• PVC -- or anything containing PVC
  • The C in PVC is chloride, which, when burnt will create chlorine gas. Just don't.
• Polycarbonate
• PTFE/Teflon See detailed SDS for how bad this is.

Key

• Thick == Thickness in millimeters
• C Sp == Cut Speed
• C Pw == Cut Power
• E Sp == Engrave Speed
• E Pw == Engrave Power
• E Scan Gap == Engrave Scan Gap

Large 80W Laser

Acrylic

Thick   C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
0.093	20	60			
0.1875					
0.225	7	80			
0.226	35	20			
0.235	6	100			
0.25					
0.5	10	75	300	30	0.20
1	20	60			
1.25	10	80			
1.5	18	43	150	20	
2	26	53	198	60	0.09
2.2	15	80			
2.5	108	62			
2.6	20	70	150	40	0.10
2.7	10	70	150	40	0.10
2.8	15	80			
3	12	62	207	37	0.20
3.175	18	80	200	20	0.10
3.3	17	63	267	43	0.06
4	26	61	213	45	0.12
4.4	10	40	200	50	
4.5	10	82			
4.75	10	80			
4.7625	10	80			
5	13	60	220	44	0.10
5.3	8	45	150	40	0.10
5.5	7	70			
5.588	10	100			
5.6	10	80			
5.8	5	80			
6	11	62	200	47	0.15
6.2	7	70			
6.35	8	78	77	48	0.10
6.5	8	86			
7	5	95			
9	9	77			
11	8	75			
12	10	72	200	60	
17	5	90					

Plywood

Thick   C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
0.125	10	70			
0.2	10	80	150	35	1.00
0.25	15	90			
0.3	20	70	200	25	
0.5	118	47	80	45	0.20
0.8	20	80			
1	21	44	217	44	0.25
1.5	44	74	150	40	0.25
2	21	63	253	46	0.10
2.5	12	48			
2.75	25	85	100	25	0.08
2.8	32	67			
3	20	68	236	45	0.16
3.12	15	70			
3.175	47	55	85	20	
3.18	15	70			
3.2	83	65	250	45	0.31
3.3	16	65			
3.8	50	80	100	30	
4	14	72	231	40	1.49
4.7	10	95			
4.75	5	45	300	30	
4.762	8	70	250	15	
4.85	30	85	50	300	0.10
5	18	68	274	36	0.21
5.1	10	75			
5.2	11	79	283	53	
5.5	17	71	300	30	0.40
5.6	15	65	300	40	0.10
5.8	10	70			
6	12	75	239	43	0.26
6.2	4	80			
6.25	16	80			
6.35	18	68	183	56	0.08
6.45	15	75			
6.5	5	80			
7	9	70	300	40	0.20
8	13	77	250	33	0.10
8.2	6	77			
8.5	5	85			
9	6	74	300	43	0.10
10	10	100	300	80	0.10
12	12	73	333	52	0.10
12.7	12	50			
18	90	25			
20			200	60	

MDF

Thick   C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
0.25	10	70	25	25	
0.3175	6	70	40	300	
0.5	10	80			
1	20	70			
1.5	60	70			
2	18	63	30	300	0.10
2.72	15	70			
3	22	69	326	41	0.20
3.175	11	70	700	80	
4	19	65	300	35	0.10
5	11	74	224	34	0.30
6	26	66	174	33	0.29
6.5	10	50			
8	10	70			
10	12	80	250	20	0.10
12	15	70			

Foamboard (various spellings)

You should probably be careful with foam board, because it can be made of different materials.

Note: Watch for fire! The pieces can drop down and catch fire, and then burn the work above.

Also, I suspect you can use high speed, low power (300/40) for cutting any depth. You can probably even go faster than 300.

Known good

• Readi-board - MSDS
• Elmer's - MSDS

Settings

Thick   C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap    Note
0.2	80	40			
0.25	10	70	25	25	
0.3175	6	70	40	300	
0.5	10	80			
1	20	70			
1.5	60	70			
2	18	63	30	300	0.10
2.72	15	70			
3	24	68	323	40	0.21
3.175	11	70	700	80	
4	34	60	250	31	0.23
4.5	80	44			
5	300	40	300	20	0.30          
6	25	65	174	33	0.29
6.5	10	50			
8	10	70			
10	12	80	250	20	0.10
12	15	70			

Cardboard

Thick   C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
0.125	50	50	50	50	
1	23	48	300	30	0.10
2	40	35			
3	35	46			
4	49	40	300	40	0.50
5	25	62			
6	45	70			
20	20	70	

Mini 60W Laser

Acrylic

Note: Pretty sure cutting speed and power are reversed on a few of these. Anything under 20 Power is effectively 0. I have now reversed them so the values should be good.

Thick           C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
3 mm (1/8")	14	60	30	60
4 mm	5	50	
5 mm	10      70		
6 mm (1/4")	10	100		

Plywood

Note: Pretty sure cutting speed and power are reversed on a few of these. Anything under 20 Power is effectively 0.

Thick           C Sp    C Pw    E Sp   E Pw    E Scan Gap
3 mm (1/8")	79	11	42	254	0.10
5 mm	83	12	30	100	
6 mm (1/4")	89	7	30	133	0.09

Files

• Large laser log data
• Small laser log data