Hello! I’m trying to cut a 1/2” plywood, does anyone knows what settings should I use? I have cut 1/8 and 1/4 but have no idea how a 1/2 would do 
THANK YOU
If you’re using Tarking, click on “view” (top middle folder), then on material library halfway down the menu. It will give you the settings. You did not specify what kind of plywood. It should include different kinds but usually the settings for baltic birch or birch are good enough counting you have a good focus. Test by cutting a small 1” circle in an scrap area of your stock
1 Like
Hi! I’m actually using Dorian !
Good luck! Dorian is not your best option once you get over 1/4.” look up the speed/power setting on Tarking(as indicated above) and try using half the speed, 100% power. Test with the 1” circle cut. The logic is if it can cut a circle it will cut straight lines. If it cuts it, look at the edge if is blackish brown you can speed it up a bit. A good cut is indicated by a brown edge and you can see the plywood layers. If it doesn’t cut it, obviously you have to slow it down further. Again, Tarkin does a better job cutting thicker materials. And always, always, double check you focus, is very important when vectoring or cutting.
1 Like
Thank you so much!!! Your insights were very helpful, I was abl to cut the 1/2 plywood but I had to do at least 7 passes with speed 30 and power 100%
How does laser focusing work with cutting something that thick?
You could have gone in slower speed. Anyway, try attending the Laser SIG and pick the brain of the people there. Or ask if one of them could walk you through finding the optimum speed/power settings for vectoring. Is a lot easier to pick up that way than watching videos. Thanks for the feedback info and keep burning!
1 Like
Some people think if you move the tip of the focus triangle/pyramid to the center of the material or in essence moving the focus closer to the stock works best. Others think keeping 100% power and keep slowing down the speed, with some adjustments to the “minimum power” is better. Sometimes waiting for the stock to cool off and make several passes may work. Some adjust frequency or DPI (advanced). As long as it works….
1 Like
1/2 in is not actually thick, not in my book. I have cut 2x4 (1.75in).
Always focus on the surface, and always 1 pass. It will only be channeled on the first pass. If you do multiple passes, the beam will diffuse up and down the cut line which makes it considerably less effective at cutting and increases the HAZ.
Also, the stock may deform slightly after the first pass, shifting the cut line or pinching it off to some degree. the kerf is quite small to begin with so very little movement is needed to interfere with successive passes
I did quite a lot of testing and, in every case, adding up all the time used to get multiple cuts all the way through was always longer than one sufficiently slow pass. The spruce 2x4 was one pass.
There is a lower limit in speed where the laser won’t fire at all. It will still move and show no error. It’s a consequence of the way several config fields interact and setting it lower would cause weird glitching in normal use. I want to say Tarkin is set to 3 but maybe 5. You’ll know if you go below it. No beam at all. Zero cutting.
1 Like
That won’t work. The beam will be out of focus at the work surface and will generally fail to develop a channel so you never get a cut.
Once you do get a channel started, the focal cone no longer exists and it’s cutting via critical angle reflections. it can cut tremendous depths this way, but channel wall distortion can limit how far it could ever go.
Out of focus work is useful if you want to engrave or raster an unusually wide line. It does not help with cutting.
A longer focal lens rarely helps. I have a 4” focal length lens as opposed to the standard 2”FL that is in there. I tried it on thick plywood and acrylic, it always did worse, slower to cut through, messier kerf, or unable to cut through at all. With one exception- microcellular polyethylene foam 35mm thick cut great with 4”FL. Much faster, straighter and cleaner cut line. No other material I tried worked better with 4”FL over 2”FL. I have some theories as to why but nothing certain.
1 Like
Well, in theory a lot of processes are not supposed to work but in practice many times they do work. As stated the user above did get their project cut by not giving up in the first try. I agree that once you go past the first run you do not get exactly a good clean edge. I totally disagree that you only use one pass to vector. An example would be there are some engraving plastics that if you try cutting them in one pass it would melt the edge but if you use several passes with a lower power at high speeds does the job perfectly. A lot of innovation in techniques have happened by people doing what it was thought not to work but by trying either by mistake or intentionally just to see what happens. My self I have used the above techniques to include the off focus to cut 3/4” plywood badge patterns and it worked while focusing on top of the stock it didn’t, even with several passes. I think the discussion should be limited to what the machine can do as is, and not confuse people with other equipment that is not allowed such as the 4” FL.