Laser Cutter Material Settings

aftermath of a plywood testing session

Unfortunately you can't just calculate the perfect settings based on the power ("Watts") of a laser cutter because the actually delivered energy is always based on a combination of power and speed, which is different for each brand or model of laser cutter. To make things more complicated, 100 % power in a cutting profile is not the same as 100 % power in an engraving profile...

As there is always some trial and error involved, please share your experience with the others! You can often use experience from other machines as a rough starting point.

In general, cutting is usually done at 100 % power and the highest speed that will still result in a reliable cut. If 100 % speed still gets you through (e.g. paper or cardboard), you should reduce the power until you find the sweet spot. Besides the power setting, you can influence the invested energy by altering the pulse frequency - you may want to go lower on flammable materials like wood, where edges might otherwise become black, and higher on plastics like acrylic glass where you are aiming for a "flame-polished" edge. ^{page 46}

The width of the kerf (Schnittfuge) also depends on the laser settings and the material you're using and could be important for certain designs. Sebastian recommends to use the "DXF for Laser" Fusion 360 export plugin ^[1] and testing different settings for each material so you get tight fitting joints.

Laserscript LS6090 (80 W)

Here's what we've tried so far - please add your own experiences!

Material	Thickness	Operation	Speed (mm/s)	Power (%)	Corner power	Resolution (dpi)	Focus	Comments
Poplar Plywood	2 mm	cut	30	100
Poplar Plywood	2 mm	engrave	500	100		0.1mm
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	cut	16	100			center (-2 mm)	kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing)
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	cut	20	80			center (-2 mm)	Cut looks good; e.g. "Bastel-Sperrholz Pappel 4mm" from Bauhaus
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	cut	40	100	30		surface	cut just about goes through - much better edge quality than center focus with s20/p80
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	mark (vector engrave, weak cut)	400	40			surface	nice fine line; small test shapes don't work well as everything is overriden by "corner power" settings
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	engrave/extrude	260	90		0.1mm		Gives you ~2mm extrusion
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	engrave/extrude	520	90		0.1mm		Gives you ~1mm extrusion
Poplar Plywood	6 mm	cut	12	100			center (-3 mm)	kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing)
Poplar Plywood	8 mm	cut	7	100			center (-4 mm)	kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing)
Fichte	4mm	cut	10	100			center	Kleinteile > 3mm
Bamboo		engrave	200	20			Surface	quite good results. Not very deep, but good visibility.
Black anodized aluminium (bead blasted surface finish)		engrave	200	60			Surface	Very clean and bright lines. No change of surface texture to-touch. Increase resolution for finer details.
MDF	3 mm	cut	19	100			Center (1.5mm)	For larger objects, increase the power/decrease speed to adjust for unevenness of the object on the table.
PMMA	3mm	cut	25	100	80		Center (-1.5mm)
PMMA	3mm	cut	20	100	80		Top Surface
PMMA	10mm	cut	3.5	100	100		Center
PMMA 3mm Schutzfolie	0.05mm	cut	100	50	15		Center (-1.5mm)
Acryl Glass (GS)	5 mm	engrave	400	50			Surface	Good visibility
Acryl Glass (GS)	5 mm	cut	2	100			Surface	Cut looks good
Glass		Engrave	300	40			Surface
Glass Black Paint	4mm	Engrave	300	100			Surface	scen gap 0.1 Bi-dr Blow
Softshell (100% Polyester)		Engrave	450	15			Surface	Using more power will burn through the material!
Fleece (fabric)		Engrave	450	20			Surface	Engraving results in general are good. The visibility of the engraving depends heavily on the color of the used fabric.
Birch Plywood	8mm	cut	10	100			Surface	Cut looks good
Linol		Engrave	250	100			Center	According to Keno
Laser Stamp Rubber	2.3mm	engrave	200	100				Product Link
Laser Stamp Rubber	2.3mm	cut	12	100				Product Link
Slate (Schiefer)		engrave	150-250	100			Surface	Engraving on smooth black slate pieces create a light grey engraving with a rough texture
Yardstick (Zollstock) - Hornbach, "Maurerlob", yellow		engrave	400	40			Surface	light grey engraving - could even use a bit more power
Laserply 3160 (coated acrylic; black/brushed gold)	1.5 mm	cut	80	100	40		Surface
Laserply 3160 (coated acrylic; black/brushed gold)		engrave	400	40			Surface

If we haven't tried a material yet, these Spaces with similar machines might have:

• looong list of MakeIt Labs' "Laser Settings 80W" (for this machine)
• smaller but probably equivalent "HPC"/"Laserscript" model at Fablab Zurich (also has a less detailed blog post)
• still pretty similar model at MadFabLab

Epilog Zing (30 W)

Outdated - we don't have this machine anymore, but perhaps other Spaces can use our information :-)

Click "Expand" on the right to see the full table!

Material	Thickness	Operation	Power	Speed	Resolution (dpi)	Frequency	Focus	Comments
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	cut	80	100	500		center (-2 mm)
Poplar Plywood	4 mm - any	3D engrave	100	75	250		surface	simple black & white design - works for QR Codes!
Poplar Plywood	4 mm	engrave	100	100	250		surface	simple black & white design - nice brown color as result
Poplar Plywood	9 mm	cut	100	27	250	5000	3mm
Beech Plywood	4 mm	cut	100	60	500		center (-2 mm)
Beech Plywood	4 mm - any	mark	10	100	500		surface
Beech Plywood	4 mm - any	engrave 3D	100	100	500		surface
MDF	3 mm	cut	100	60	200	2500	center (-1.5 mm)
Corrugated Fiberboard	2 mm	cut	25	100			surface
Silver anodised aluminium		engrave	50	100	500		surface	black & white design
XPS (extruded polystyrene)	20 mm	cut	45	100			center (-10 mm)	very wide kerf (~ 2 mm)!
Acrylic Glass	3 mm	cut	100	30	500	5000 (default)	center (-1.5 mm)
Acrylic Glass	3 mm - any	mark	20	100	500	5000 (default)	surface	about 0.5 mm deep
masking tape on metal	0.1 mm	engrave (let disappear)	100	100	500		surface	experiment to prepare an abrasive blasting mask - not successful, was blasted away...should work well for painting though
thin cardbord (frozen pizza box)	0.55 mm	cut	20	100	500	2500 (default)	surface
thin cardbord (frozen pizza box)	0.55 mm	mark	8	100	500	2500 (default)	surface
cellulose acetate (overhead slides)	<1 mm	cut	6-7	100	500	5000 (default)	surface	Power 7 cuts completely, Power 6 makes cutout adhere to template, but is easy to remove manually. Keep the printer clean ;)
blockboard (surface = birch veneer?)	18 mm - any	engrave 3D	20	100	500	2500 (default)	surface	visible, but still letting the grain show through - more powerful settings (e.g. 100/100) go noticeably deeper but only a bit darker
vulcanized fiber	0.8 mm	cut	100	100	200	5000 (default)	center (-0.4 mm)	lower power not tested yet
vulcanized fiber	1.5 mm	cut	100	80	200	5000 (default)	center (-0.75 mm)	higher speed not tested yet