Laser Cutter Material Settings

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 - here's how to determine this parameter!

Once we have a permanent machine, we should also work on a github repository with VisiCut settings again.

Epilog Zing (30 W)

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

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	30	250	5000	3mm
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	1 mm	cut	30	100	500	2500 (default)	surface	Could probably go even lower with power