1/16" Canarywood or Redheart Cut Setting guidance

[ChristyM]

I’ve got a small-ish board each of ~1/16" canarywood and redheart that I want to cut and I have absolutely no idea where to start. I would rather not start from scratch guessing since I don’t have a lot to work with.

Anyone have a ballpark idea from their experience with these or similar 1/16" materials? I don’t mind narrowing it down if I have a starting point.

And, yes, I searched.

[evansd2]

Redheart cuts easily. like maple. Canarywood has some variance, so I cut it a little harder.

You should be able to do a multi power test cut and get it dialed in while only sacrificing 1/4” or so…

New material cut test method

Don’t know what settings to use on a material? The only way to be sure is to test. Good news! You can effectively test on a thin strip on the edge of your material, it’s fast and easy. I use this shape to do so (SVG attached): [Material_test] Click here to download/save Or click here for the ZIP: Material_test.zip (3.3 KB) To use: Set the first operation to score (the numbers). You’ll use these to identify your cut pieces later. Set each of the curve shapes to a power/speed combo t…

I forget if you’re pro or basic but if it were me I’d range between 250/full and 350/full on my test with 10-speed step size.

[ChristyM]

Thank you. I’ve got a Basic. And that’s exactly what I needed. I have been mostly cutting things in 1/8" and not a big range, so I had absolutely no idea where to begin.

I finally had an idea for what to do with the range of small 1/16th boards I got on Etsy… If I ever finish, I’ll post pics.

[evansd2]

I just looked through my settings, black walnut also cuts really easily, I cut 1/16th at 320/full/1x (pro, masked both sides with perfectear plus)

I would expect redheart at the same thickness (which it wont be) to cut at about 300/full on a basic, the canarywood will probably cut inconsistently unless you slightly overpower it, but it wont be far off that. Maybe 290/F/1x. Just guessing, though.

[ChristyM]

Well, I cut the canarywood.

I tested it on the settings you suggested and it was a bit toasty, so I upped the speed and adjusted and adjusted until I finally had to drop the power and it stopped cutting through. I then went back up a notch and went to cut the larger shape and it didn’t cut out at all. Ran a second pass and still no. Dropped the power for the third pass and finally got it cut out. In the midst of this, it struck me that the tiny circles I used were an awful way to test the power settings and that it was going much slower on those than on a straight line. Anyway, somehow the canarywood was not completely ruined in this learning process.

I still have no idea what settings to use, other than the three passes I went with, but the wood is cut and it looks great. I tackle the redheart next…