Greetings, I recently bought some birch plywood from NationalBalsa online store and when I ran 60W (capped due to breaker issue) it did not cut through and looked burnt compared to other woods that were previously tested. Tested with another wood and did fine. Any thoughts? I am not certain if it has any adhesive if anyone have used from this website thank you in advance.
Wood - Birch Plywood
Thickness - 1/16th
Power 60W Speed 30
Equipment Laguna EX Laser 150W CO2 Laser Cutter & Engraver
HI Luis
How many passes did you use and at what speed and power.
I had this issue recently with some bb/bb 4mm birch ply and what helped alot was to allow the material to cool down between passes.
It seemed to be the particular glue or resin used in the bonding of the layers. I had to use up to 21 passes at 95% power and 1100mm/min, which was a lot more than the usual 6 to 8 passes with other ply.
The trick for you may be to move to another shape after maybe 2 or 3 passes on each and continue until all passes are completed.this worked well for me but took some more time.
I cut a shape yesterday at my speed and power stated above, that was quite a large rectangle so the cut line had time to cool down and it was good and pretty clean.
I’ll post the link to the post where I got the suggestion on how to apply a method of using sub-layers which worked well.
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This topic post has the file (Heart shaped coins) Look at the use of sub layers.
I ran this file as a test and it worked great, so you just have to apply that method to your job.
Thanks to Parsec!…for the tip.
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I just threw out a whole stack of 5mm birch plywood because it’s exterior glued. It must have been hiding because I threw out everything else of this kind a long time ago. I can cut it but the result is not something I want or can use or sell. Every time I’ve given this material a chance I just get mad, so only laser-suitable material here in my workshop.
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Confused, what does this mean…?
All of the cutting of thin materials that I do, I try to use as much power as I have and speed to make it through in a single pass.
A 60W machine should easily cut through 3mm wood products. If the glue they use isn’t very laser friendly, that can be a group of issues on it’s own.
I cut 5mm sub flooring and use it as jigs. On my previous tube, I can run 11mm/s@45% using a 43W tube. If you really have a 60W machine, I’d expect much better cutting.
I try everything I can get cheap.. If it doesn’t work, I try to remember that, so to speak. As I get older it’s a little more of an issue.
