Difference from engraving and scoring

Questions for scoring

  1. How much do you change it from your engraving settings?

  2. Do you change it from cut settings or engraving settings?

  3. Looks good on wood but can you or should you do that with acrylic?

If these are the wrong questions can someone explain the settings for scoring

Thank you

Only difference in engraving, ‘scoring’ or cutting is how deep you are going. The speed and power that you are using… Higher power, deeper cut.

You have to figure settings out on your own for a specific depth.

Yes you can do it on acrylic, why would you?

:smile_cat:

I’m new to the laser biz and I dont know about acrylic. I just started testing it and was curious if it had an positive effect like it does on wood. Thank you for your help

A laser is not ‘hot’ it’s an electromagnetic field. This ‘beam’ of emf excites the molecules of the material, which we sense as heat.

To excite the molecule, the frequency of the beam has to be absorbed by the material. If the beam is visible light, anything you can see though will not have any effect from the beam.

CO2 laser is in the IR region, invisible to human eye, but it is blocked by glass and acrylic, so it cuts those materials well… Both are effective ‘safety’ glasses.

Good luck

:smile_cat:

If you have a wooden vehicle file for instance, you could have cutting, engraving, and scoring all in the same file.
Do engrave first. Set the burn to “Fill” 250mm/sec speed with 15 to 20 percent on power. Score is next using 100mm/sec and 15 to 20 percent on power. Cut setting 10mm/sec and 45% power.

These settings work for me on 3mm MDF. Using veneer both sides with MDF core will require a little more power, maybe 50% to 55%. Also 3mm in thickness.

So for the score you slow it down by over half?

Yes but remember the material has so much to do with it. You may not get the exact results I do. You may have to do some experimenting, imagine that. lol

I didnt understand the concept of scoring until I saw a video. But the sublayers in lightburn make scoring even easier to setup