1/4" birch cutting issues

amazon is good, but if you can find a local supplier who will cut down sheets for you, it will be a lot cheaper per sheet. especially if you need it in any great volume.

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I appreciate your honesty and your feedback. What’s been challenging is that the 1/4" does cut beautifully, some of the time. The first sample cut of one shape was perfect, but the more complicated designs have been a bust.

It’s baltic birch.

Thanks @jules. I read the posts about plywood before ordering it.

Thanks @shop.

Even 1/8" baltic can vary and be inconsistent. It’s a great material and I use it a lot, but occasionally you get a weird batch or even just a local issue.

There are ways to help identify this in 1/8" to an extent, but even then you’re not guaranteed anything:

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Thanks @evansd2.

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Hey Dac,
Yeah I’m sorry you’ve struggled with that. I’m sticking to 1/8" personally. I like the golden edge and have found a workflow that works for me with very consistent results. But yes, gluing together is time consuming and messier. But I know your pain, it would be awesome to have 1/4" with the golden edge and reliable cuts.

-Brad

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I have ventured into 1/8" wood and not so happy with it. I use mostly 1/4 but all the way up yo 1/2"
These folks have consistent quality of Baltic Birch at prices that are as reasonable as reasonable for the quality and service…
Ocooch Hardwoods - Supplier of Thin Wood for Scroll Sawing, Carving Blocks, Intarsia wood, Plywood for scroll sawing, and more.
I had no trouble cutting and engraving this out of 1/4" Baltic Birch…


with full power, 350 speed

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Thanks, Brad

@rbtdanforth , I ordered some plywood from Ocooch this morning before I posted. I’ll let you know how it works out.

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See if you are getting real Baltic Birch - your suppliers may be providing plain Birch plywood (birch veneers over who knows what inner plies vs baltic birch veneers over baltic birch plies). Ask for a full sheet and if it’s not 60"x60" it’s likely not BB.

Then if you’re getting scorching at 110 but it cuts through, try something like 150 & 2 passes or 200 & 3 passes,

If you want to get really tricky, make as many copies of the item in your design file as passes - then color each one differently. Stack them on top of each other and in the GFUI set each one with the same power/speed and 1 pass but change the focus height to the material thickness for the 1st pass, 1/2 the material thickness for the 2nd pass and 0.1 for the 3rd pass (if you do 3 passes). Each one will focus lower in the material and clean the cut above it a bit as well as cut more with less (or no) charring/blackening.

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I know the Menards Baltic birch is a different breed. It’s “Baltic birch” but 4x8’ sheets - the kicker is that the 4x8’ sheets use an exterior glue rather than an interior glue like the 5x5’ sheets.

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Thanks @jamesdhatch. I’ll try these suggestions. I appreciate the help.

Which is not permitted in the BB standard (there’s an EU standards definition that applies - kind of like champagne).

There is some standards compliant BB in the 4x8 size made by some Russian companies and I believe there is one domestic manufacturer that makes it as well but it’s a special order large dollar product - I doubt any mass marketer like Menards would ever sell it.

The whole point of the standard is that it’s consistent. Different glues don’t support consistency. And that’s a big issue in laser cutability.

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@jamesdhatch , I tried cutting several pieces of 1/4" baltic birch with your suggestion of 2 - 3 passes at 150-200 today . I had mixed results so I tried a low tech version of your suggestion of doing 3 passes at different focus heights. That seemed to do the trick. It took 4 -5 tries to get the settings right, but I had about a 95% success rate. I just made three custom settings and cut the same design 3 times doing one pass at 200 full power at .23, one pass at 200 full power at .115 and one pass at 130 full power at .1. That cut fully through @95% of the lines. Most of the pieces just fell out and the few stubborn ones just took a couple of swipes of an x-acto knife to release them. Many thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate your help.

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Glad it worked. A little experimentation always seems to be worth the time - otherwise I just burn up more time redoing things. Apparently there really aren’t any shortcuts in life :blush:

(I hate it when my mother turns out to be right :wink:)

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I have had the same issue and scorching starts at 125 and multiple passes would just ruin the cutout Especially words it just torches it useless and crumbles. I have tried settings from 160 all 3 passes nope still no cut through or some cuts through and not all the way on other parts. then there is 155 150 145 140 same problem then there is multiple passes on 135 130 120 all again still torches the wood so bad it ruins the words or anything that is not large and wide pieces but the outside edges are burnt to hell. So The reality of things is we need more than 3 pass options. Especially for the ones who know how to use the machine and have been for a while. We need to be able to use faster full speeds on like 5-6 passes and we will have very clean cut 1/4 plywood cuts. The other option I have seen people post to is Run it through Again to get more passes . Well lets be realistic here. I have never on a 2nd run of cutting ever had the laser cut 100% in the same exact spot even when not moving the material at all. So What it really boils down to is we need more pass options than 3.

I do it all the time. Pin the backing material down with the honeycomb pins here before running the job. (And don’t move the design on the screen.)

For issues cutting through on 1/4" material - try buying a better grade of material. One thing most people don’t understand is that cheap plywoods tend to have all kinds of really nasty fillers, glues, knots and holes in it that will not cut through with any laser. No matter how many passes you use. Charred and crumbling is not the desired results.

Either real Baltic Birch plywood or the Proofgrade materials are by far the most consistent that I’ve found so far.

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Try this to learn more

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