It is amazing to have done as well. Just under a half-inch is a good thing as if a thousandth over half the set focus goes crazy even if the blower still goes over it. A hair under and Set Focus works.
I was trying to cut half-inch plywood and found that just at the edge of the cut, engraving a quarter-inch down first means you only have to cut a quarter inch more. A jewelers saw with what jewelers think is a thick blade is just a bit thinner than the kerf and good for getting at those “almost through” places. Xacto also has razors and really small saws that can be a solution as well.
In general, I have a love/hate relationship with oak. It is generally less expensive than any other species except poplar in thicker sized in Lowes and all they had in solid hardwood. It is not the hardest to cut, and won’t burst into flames as others can but it has the most open grain and thus the roughest when engraved, blowing out small details. It is also the dirtiest and smokiest of anything but MDF. I was cleaning up after doing a lot of oak and found what looked like gray cotton balls that on inspection were oak fibers that were flying away when the easier burning wood was burned around them.
Yea, I’ve used an exacto blade here and there when there’s a small section of the perimeter of the cut that didn’t go thru the entire way. But when you have a really long curving perimeter where almost the entire cut didn’t go all the way thru, I would rather just flip the piece over and just have the laser take care of that last little bit. My cross hair and using cardboard as a templet to get the piece in the same position from front to back seems to work well enough.
I mainly used oak because it was readily available locally in 1/2" thickness. I could go to an amish sawmill and get about whatever i want at a reasonable rate if I needed a large enough quantity, but not so much if I just need 3-4 boards. If I did it over again I would probably do it in maple. Buy 3/4" thick and saw/plane it down to 1/2". Maple is smooth as butter and I don’t seem to have much problem cutting thru 1/2" thick pieces.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is that what seems to help in gluing two 1/2" thick pieces together is that the thinner the wood, the more likely it seems you have to deal with warping, cupping, etc. But if you have two pieces with a little bit of cupping, you can put them back to back and clamp/glue them back flat.
When I tested with the pre-release the company graced me with back in '17, pretty sure it had a pro tube in it. Full power as slow as it would go, 3/4" Oak, one pass.
I found it interesting how the penetration in the soft summer growth was deeper, punctuated with the harder Winter growth.
I loved the testing, I’d never had a laser at my disposal. “Well, that’s how far it will cut through 3/4” Oak… What can I try next?."
Can you consistently do that? I can cut two pieces of 1/2" oak at 110 speed/full power and it will cut thru one of the pieces and not at all on the second piece.
I don’t normally work with material that thick, that was just a test.
As the company was ramping up to start shipping, they sent out some pre-release machines to select customers. I was fortunate enough to get one of those.
My own machine is a basic, and won’t cut that deep, which is why I speculate the machine the company loaned me had a pro tube. Which machine do you own?
Oak is dirty enough that the difference could be crud on the lenses, especially those in the path that the smoke travels. But it could also be a difference piece to piece.
I assume it’s random variation of the grain of the oak. I keep my lenses clean and I can cut 10 pieces and the ones that it will cut thru might be pieces 3, 5, 6, and 9 and not cut thru entirely all the other pieces.
