Thanks for the ideas, @berainlb.
I’ve made some progress since your last message.
I think you are correct about what is happening with the white paper. I found this post and it explains that white paper reflects light and then, when it abruptly starts to mark, the color change flips from not engraving to engraving on an absorbent color rapidly. In effect, the proper settings are a knife edge. For example, I tried a 0.5% increase in laser power and the engraving nearly burned through the 100# cardstock after not showing on the back side in a previous run.
The other thing that helped with engraving consistency/streak mitigation was increasing the lines-per-inch from 254 (default) to 360. The LPI increase made the cross-hatch unnecessary.
At this point, my engraving settings on the Atomstack X7 for 100# bright white cardstock are:
- Speed 1600
- Power 16.5%
- Lines per inch 360
- Fill only (no fill + line)
I’ve been paying more attention to focus and it seems fine. For final cuts, I will sticky tape the paper down.
Thanks again for your help. It pushed me in the right direction.