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.
Contents |
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
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
