Laser Materials and Settings

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Narwhal Labs Laser Material and Settings Library

A library of known materials and laser settings that have been tested to work at Narwhal Labs on a Thunder Laser Nova 35 100W CO2 Laser Cutter and Engraver. Settings are not guaranteed to work and should be considered a baseline. Please add to or update this page if you test a new known material. Please obey all safety protocols listed on our main laser information page.

Never Ever Cut These Things

Material Also Known As Reason
PVC Poly Vinyl Chloride, Sintra, Oracal Vinyl, Pleather Emits deadly chlorine gas, corrodes machine internals
Rubber
Smells like a tire fire. Potential cyanide gas.
Polypropylene
Melty plastic mess
Carbon Plate
Melty mess
Unknown Anything you don't know the composition of Risk of fire, damage, injury or death.

Wood

Material Thickness Line/Fill/Image Power (%) Speed (mm/s) Passes Notes
Baltic Birch Plywood 6mm Fill 20 400 1 Light engraving
Baltic Birch Plywood 6mm Line 85 10 1 Glue spots/voids do not cut through
Baltic Birch Plywood 6mm Line/fill 20 400 1 Good quality line and raster engraving
Baltic Birch Plywood 9mm Line 95 10 1 Should be a complete cut with proper focus. Work piece should be a few mm closer to the cutting head than auto focus distance. NOT EXTERIOR GRADE

Plastics

Material Thickness Line/Fill/Image Power (%) Speed (mm/s) Passes Notes
Cast Acrylic - factory masked on both sides 1/8” Line 50 20 1 Excellent cut quality
Cast Acrylic - Remove top masking NA Fill 15 400 1 Good light etching, focus must be perfect
Cast Acrylic - factory masked on both sides 3/8" Line 80 10 2 Unable to cut in a single pass
Cast Acrylic - factory masked on both sides 1/4" Line 60 10 1 Excellent cut quality, may want to move focus to middle of cut.
ABS 1/4" Line 85 10 1 Good cut quality. Slight burr on bottom edge.

Other

Material Thickness Cut/Fill/Image Power (%) Speed (mm/s) Passes Notes
Paper Micarta 4.45mm Line 60 15 1 Complete cut. Residue at cut edge can be cleaned easily with acetone / alcohol mix.
Ozark Trail Tumbler NA Image 40 300 1 Requires clean up with acetone/alcohol mix.
Glass NA Image/Fill 50 800 1 Good quality etching