[Swansea Hackspace] Laser cutting plywood

[Justin Mitchell]

On Thu, 2017-07-06 at 13:34 +0000, Aled wrote:
> I need to cut some shapes out for a kids party, I need to do a bunch
> the same do I thought the laser cutter would be the easiest way to do
> it. Does anyone know vwhat thickness of ply the laser cutter can cut
> cleanly? (3mm should be enough) 
The thicker the wood the slower the cut, i think the record on that
machine is 10mm or so, which was done in multiple passes.

> and does it need void free birch ply
> or will any old plywood do?
There are many debates about this online, from what i can work out its
mostly about quality of finish, that any internal knots or voids can
affect the cut.

I have also seen it mentioned that exterior grade ply is best avoided,
as some use nasty chemicals in the glues.

> Also can it engrave and cut in one operation?
Kind of, you can queue up multiple operations/passes with different
settings, but it is a bit of faff and usually easier just to do it
yourself.

save each pass as a separate file with the same document size, then
when you load each one it should all line up.