Hi everyone i just started to experiment with puzzles on my laser and have seen almost all vids on the topic on Youtube 
Lots of good information.BUT our “friend” called Kerf is an acurring issue. My experience now is that its two solutions to deal with the kerf. If you are going to engrave your design directly on the puzzle, you can just separate every piece before cutting, and then adjust your kerf accordingly, and then put the puzzle back and then do the engraving. If you are going to use a picture/photo, you are not able to do that, and you just have to live with the fact that the puzzle will be a littlebit loose ( its not fun to sell that product). Well, i havent tried to make a jig on my laserbed, cut the pieces first, assemble them, glue the picture on and cut it again. I would believe that even with a jig it will be difficult hitting the laserbeam exactly on the same track…just a micromillimeter off will destroy the whole puzzle…, is it anyone with experience with this that could share this with me(us) would be very nice . Without too much fuzz, im not talking about just one puzzle. Please inlighten me
I see that you have a diode laser. My experience is with a CO2, but here is what I do. I use self adhesive inkjet paper to image my puzzle picture. I adhere that to some matte board for photos. I then use a 1.5" lens on the laser to cut the puzzle. The puzzle has only one line between pieces, and there is so little kerf that the puzzle is not loose.
There are many online puzzle generators, and there is an extension for the free Inkscape to make puzzles.
How are you generating your puzzle files?
Hi Patrick, i do have a 150w co2 i just havent updated my profile 
Im currently using a f50.8 lense, but i just bough a f38.1, do you think that would be the solution? Do you think it would be any problem penetrating 3mm basswood with that lense? I have tried several generators, also inkscape. As long im able to disconnect the puzzles, its no problem, then they fit perfect, but as soon i cut them directly from the generator ( all connected) they are a littlebit too loose to look proffessional, even if adjust the kerf. But maby changing my lense to f38.1 will help?
Try that 38mm lens, it should have a smaller kerf. Be sure you do a ramp test for focus to get the best fine cut. Also, try different wood if that is your preferred material. Different woods burn with a different kerf, if you can get a very light brown tan on the cut edges, it might work better.
You will get a smaller spot,
I computed these values for my 38.1mm (1.5") lens – spot size 153 microns (0.153mm) and a depth of focus (dof) of 1.54mm
For my 50.8mm (2") lens, spot size is 205 microns and dof of 2.75mm.
If you want to stay focused, you’d use, at least the 2" lens with a deeper dof.
You also have to focus to center of wood.
Any of this make sense?
Hi, I am new to this forum and relatively new to laser cutting and engraving. Started making custom boxes, then jigsaw puzzles and now I have a software app on the Apple App Store to help with making puzzles. The app generates SVG file to paste into Lightburn and the documentation includes my suggested materials for CO2 cut puzzles.
Please checkout my app using a promo code for a free download at:
http://www.RiceMotion.com/LaserJigsaw/
You can’t leave a review on the Apple store with a free download, but you will get updates. Of course, I would appreciate any reviews left on this forum.
Thanks,
Bob Rice
One trick I’ve learned when CO2 cutting plastic is to cut in perforation mode. What appears to be a wide kerf is often the plastic melting back from the cut. Cutting in perforation mode will reduce the melt back from the cut.
Thanks for your aswer, i tried out the 1.5 lense, and it didnt work for me. It wasnt able to cut my 3mm plywood. I guess it work better with the material you use. So i probably have to live with the kerf when i use photo-puzzle… as i said, when i engrave, it fits perfectly, for then i just separate all pieces…
Yes it does make sense, i tried out my 1.5 lense…i had to raise power a lot, and use two passes on my 3mm plywood…
Hi Bob, cool that you have made this app. But im a pc (windows) user, so im not able to trie it before you make a windows version.
Let me know if you do 
Hi Robin,
Thanks for your interest!
Sorry, I would if I could, but I am a Mac only developer. I haven’t even made an IOS app yet.
Lightburn works very well on the Mac platform. Does it work as well in Windows?
Although I don’t have a PC to test with, I suspect that the SVG files would work if copied from a Mac to a PC.
I saw that the Lightburn team was not yet interested in supporting IOS.
My priority is developing similar SVG generating apps on the Mac for laser cutting and engraving. It will clean up my library of Lightburn files.
Thanks,
Bob Rice