Advice on Smoke and Marks on Laser Cutting

Just ask your dealer for interior glued plywood. There are plenty of good examples and explanations here in the forum regarding this material.

I wonder how many Euros in time it cost you to clean up the laser and the parts created? Sometimes dirt cheap is not really a bargain.

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Aeroplan Birch plywood Interior glued, costs for 1500x500mm, 4mm, 5-layer - 31.3 Euro - $ US$ 36.
The legally set minimum wage in Denmark is for 2026 an average for industry and service 148 Dkr - 20 Euro - US$23.
Tax must be paid for that, which is on average between 32-38%. (high but - in return I have not had my wallet open for 66 years for hospital treatment, school education, incl. university, free elderly care, and I have received a state pension for the last 5 years, which everyone here gets in addition to possible private or work-related extra pensions, which everyone can live ok on.

Exterior glued plywood 4mm costs here about a third less than interior plywood, so about 20 euros for the mentioned board. If you then say it takes an hour to clean it after cutting, add 10 euros - then you are close to the same price as interior but get a much higher quality and significantly better working environment.

I think everyone, especially hobbyists, has tried to deal with bad plywood, it’s tempting to save money. The only way it works with laser cutting exterior glued plywood is in semi-industrial use, here there is mass production and machines that can do the job.

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Bernd,

I am not sure what wood to use yet. I continue to experiment, using 3mm and 6 mm Baltic Birch. It is easy to find. I have good luck with it. There may be better wood or thicknesses to use. I have had success, or what I thought was success, using Baltic Birch. At times, the 6mm is harder to find. If you have suggestions, I certainly would appreciate any advice or tips you may have.

Thanks,

Frank

For what task?, sorry if I overlooked it.

If you mean in general and strength is not critical, then poplar plywood is also fine to work with. It is also available with more stable cover plates which makes it suitable for boxes and is still good to work with. The speed can be increased compared to birch plywood, it often gives cleaner cut surfaces. Also available in thicker varieties

You use the term “Plate” at different times. As you can tell, this is pretty new to me. What are you referring to when you use this term? I am sorry to bother you with all these trivial questions, but this is a new language to me and a new sport as well.

Thanks so much,

Frank

I think he is describing a veneer layer on one side.

As @MikeyH gets, those are the 2 outer layers. :wink:

…there are sometimes problems with the translation.

In Australia I once wanted to thank friends for their hospitality, it turned into hostility…, thank God the Australians are nice and friendly people and they took it in good humor.

Plywood can have up to many layers, typically the manufacturer uses “pretty” layers for the outer sides.
I sometimes work with 5mm BB plywood with 10 layers and the poplar plywood that I use has 6 layers. Even my 0.4 and 0.8mm have 3 layers.
A completely different fine material for many things is Bambu, however it requires construction-specific considerations.

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Hi Bernd

I can get the Aeroplan sheets from the hardwood supplier I use, they sell 5mm and 8mm in cross grain and long grain.

Is it recommended to generally choose long grain…even though it depends on the task I suppose.

That’s the right stuff. Not sure what you mean by long and cross grain, here I can choose between interior, exterior and flex. I use interior glued aero birch plywood, exterior is not for us laser people and flex glued means it can bend in all directions, we don’t need this either and is also quite expensive.
Ask your dealer if he can’t get you 3 and 4mm too, if you use that then you’re covered.
I can’t get 8mm, but I’d like to try that sometime.

I use R-tape Conform, which comes in a variety of widths from Grimco, or probably most sign supply sites. We use it for vinyl signs. For the laser, I keep a roll of 12 inch width handy.

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