Seeing an outward kerf

[nelsonmay]

Please see my file.

I want to make some templates for a router. I want to join wood in curves. See the Yin Yang file. I have been reading on kerfs and hear that the beam is .005 inches or mm thick? I want to make sure my kerf is set correctly so that my halves of curves come together to make a perfect circle when I add my template to the wood and cut it on a router. I also want to have the kerf set on the two circles so that I can route them (I am making a jig for safety) and insert them into the wood.

Side note. I am also burning wood to insert into plexiglass. I want to sand off the charcoal and be able to insert a laser cut circle into plexi of the charcoal? I know it is experimentation, but I get a few hours of week on a Thunder 100w at a maker space and want to see if you guy have designed this and have had success.

I also want to put colored plexiglass into clear plexiglass. I saw a video somewhere about a guy making keychains with inserts. Was that on the LB training videos? If anyone has advice on cutting plexiglass
yin yang kerfs.lbrn2 (22.9 KB)
and inserting objects into larger pieces of plexiglass?

[thelmuth (Tim Helmuth)]

Your kerf will vary depending on what meterial you are cutting. It’s not just the spot size of the laser. Acrylic will generally have a wider kerf than plywood, which will have a different kerf than hardwood. You need to run tests in the material you will be using for your project, at the speed and power you will be using to get an accurate kerf reading.