I still have no idea why my laser is not cutting through 3mm thick ply. I have a sculpfun s9 and i have watched videos. They set their settings to speed 300mm/m power 100 % and say they can get through it with 3-4 passes. I’ve put my settings on that and after 15 passes it still doesn’t go through, doesn’t even mark the otherside 
yet it will go through 2mm ply with 6 passes. Dunno how I would ever get through 12mm thickness that it’s meant to when I can’t even get through 3 the engraving part works absolutely fine.
Hi Melissa,
Apologies if you’re an experianced user of lasers, but I would check the lens is clean and it’s focussed on the material correctly.
Different materials are going to have different reflectivity. Natural products can have a wide range of variability.
Borax solution may help. Air assist definitely helps.
I have a 3018 Pro (hobbyist chinese laser) which I bought with a 15W laser. It cut 3mm ply using speed 80, 100% power in 5 passes (a lot of charring)
I recently upgraded the laser to 40W, an I can now cut 3mm ply (cleanly) in 2 passes using speed 290 at 100% power and a z step per pass of 0.5mm, which moves the head 0.5mm closer to the ply on the 2nd pass. I always use air assist.
So the first cuestion is how many watts is your laser, because I would not even dream of cutting 6mm ply when I had the 15W one. I would make two 3mm pieces and glue them instead.
I hope I helped.
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Sounds like a focus issue to me try lowering the Z after 6 passes and run 6 more
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