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. 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)
Check Forbidden and Possible Materials.
- Power range: 1-100 %
- Speed range: 200-400 mm/s recommended for engraving; higher speeds are achievable according to the data sheet [what is the actual limit??]
- Why look at the date? CO2 lasers loose power over time! New tubes installed: 2020-01 / ...
Here's what we've tried so far - please add your own experiences!
| Material | Date
(YYYY-MM) |
Thickness | Operation | Speed (mm/s) | Power (%) | Corner power | Scan gap ("resolution") | Focus | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poplar Plywood | 2 mm | cut | 30 | 100 | |||||
| Poplar Plywood | 2024-10 | irrelevant | engrave | 500 | 100 | 0.1mm | |||
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-02 | 4 mm | cut | 16 | 100 | center (-2 mm) | kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing) | ||
| Poplar Plywood | 2021-06 | 4 mm | cut | 20 | 80 | center (-2 mm) | Cut looks good; e.g. "Bastel-Sperrholz Pappel 4mm" from Bauhaus | ||
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-06 | 4 mm | cut | 40 | 100 | 30 | surface | cut just about goes through - much better edge quality than center focus with s20/p80 | |
| Poplar Plywood | 2024-07 | 4 mm | cut | 22 | 100 | 50 | surface | cut *just* goes through, very nice edges | |
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-06 | 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 | 2022-04 | 4 mm | engrave/extrude | 260 | 90 | 0.1mm | Gives you ~2mm extrusion | ||
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-04 | 4 mm | engrave/extrude | 520 | 90 | 0.1mm | Gives you ~1mm extrusion | ||
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-02 | 6 mm | cut | 12 | 100 | center (-3 mm) | kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing) | ||
| Poplar Plywood | 2024-07 | 6 mm | cut | 08 | 100 | 50 | sub-center (-1 step) | cut through easyly, also fine with tape | |
| Poplar Plywood | 2022-02 | 8 mm | cut | 7 | 100 | center (-4 mm) | kerf: approx. 0.15 mm for a bit of wiggle room (for gluing) | ||
| Spruce (Fichte) | 2021-12 | 4mm | cut | 10 | 100 | center | Kleinteile > 3mm | ||
| Bamboo cutting board | 2020-08 | engrave | 200 | 20 | Surface | quite good results. Not very deep, but good visibility. | |||
| Black anodized aluminium (bead blasted surface finish) | 2020-08 | engrave | 200 | 60 | Surface | Very clean and bright lines. No change of surface texture to-touch. Increase resolution for finer details. | |||
| MDF | 2020-08 | 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. | ||
| Acrylic Glass (PMMA) | 3mm | cut | 25 | 100 | 80 | Center (-1.5mm) | |||
| Acrylic Glass (PMMA) | 3mm | cut | 20 | 100 | 80 | Top Surface | |||
| Acrylic Glass (PMMA) | 2021-10 | 10mm | cut | 3.5 | 100 | 100 | Center | ||
| Protective Foil on Acrylic Glass | 0.05mm | cut | 100 | 50 | 15 | Center (-1.5mm) | |||
| Acrylic Glass (PMMA) - GS | 2021-03 | 5 mm | engrave | 400 | 50 | Surface | Good visibility | ||
| Acrylic Glass (PMMA) - GS | 5 mm | cut | 2 | 100 | Surface | Cut looks good | |||
| Glass | 2021-04 | Engrave | 300 | 40 | Surface | ||||
| Glass Black Paint | 2021-10 | Engrave | 300 | 100 | Surface | scan gap 0.1, Bi-dir, Blow, Jo | |||
| Glass Black Paint | 2022-10 | Engrave | 300 | 60 | Surface | scan gap 0.05, Bi-dir, 3bar, Jo | |||
| Softshell (100% Polyester) | 2021-04 | Engrave | 450 | 15 | Surface | Using more power will burn through the material! | |||
| Fleece (fabric) | 2021-04 | Engrave | 450 | 20 | Surface | Engraving results in general are good.
The visibility of the engraving depends heavily on the color of the used fabric. | |||
| Fleece (fabric, Polyester) | 2024-10 | 4 mm | cut | 90 | 85 | 75 | center (-2 mm) | Cut though, borders melted | |
| Birch Plywood | 2021-08 | 8mm | cut | 10 | 100 | Surface | Cut looks good | ||
| Birch Plywood | 2023-05 | engrave | 1000 | 80 | 0.075 mm | Surface | strong contrast (dark engraving); gap 0.1 or even 0.8 left visible remains | ||
| Birch Plywood | 2023-05 | engrave | 400 | 30 | 0.15 mm | Surface | slight contrast (light engraving); subtle steps at the outlines (scan gap should be smaller) | ||
| Linol | 2021-08 | Engrave | 250 | 100 | Center | According to Keno | |||
| Laser Stamp Rubber | 2024-10 | 2.3mm | engrave | 200 | 100 | 0.1 mm | surface | Product Link | |
| Laser Stamp Rubber | 2024-10 | 2.3mm | cut | 12 | 100 | surface | visible flames - try higher speed?! | ||
| Slate (Schiefer) | 2021-12 | 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 | 2022-05 | engrave | 400 | 40 | Surface | light grey engraving - could even use a bit more power | |||
| Laserply 3160 (coated acrylic; black/brushed gold) | 2022-05 | 1.5 mm | cut | 80 | 100 | 40 | Surface | ||
| Laserply 3160 (coated acrylic; black/brushed gold) | 2022-05 | engrave | 400 | 40 | Surface | ||||
| EVA Foam | 2022-08 | 10mm | cut | 40 | 100 | Center | |||
| Colored Card | 2022-10 | engrave | 700 | 20 | Surface | Brown card - got nice results (documentation to follow) | |||
| Colored Card | 2022-10 | Cut | 350 | 100 | Surface | Brown card - got nice results (documentation to follow) | |||
| Paper | 2024-06 | 0.4mm | cut | 50 | 100 | Worked with speed 400, power 50 for small squares. But somehow didn't work for larger rounded shapes. Given values then worked for cutting shapes from (thick) colored paper. | |||
| Paper | 2024-06 | 0.4mm | engrave | 700 | 40 | Worked for engraving text into (thick) colored paper. Not very dark, though. | |||
| PET | 2023-07 | 0.75 mm | cut | 60 | 100 | Surface | Hard to focus due to bend from the roll, lots of smoke! Leftover material from "Maker vs Virus" | ||
| Masking Tape (e.g. on wood) | 2024-02 | 0.1 mm | cut | 50 | 25 | 10 | Surface | Speed 100/power 50 also cut through with ease, but seemed to "wiggle" more | |
| Oak wood | 2024-10 | mark (vector engrave, weak cut) | 200 | 20 | surface | gives clean lines to follow with a saw |
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 |
