Cutting through leather

Hello everyone, I tried to cut through leather last night but did not see section for cut? I’m using like a 7 gauge leather, I was able to engrave the leather in 3 passes, but no cut through. Also do not want to burn leather. Thanks for any help.

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That is how lasers work! The trick is making something you can clean up after. If you move light and very fast is will make a minimal burn but also not very deep. The more passes the more you will burn what you will have already cut. For myself I have found that if the leather is wet it will spend a hair more energy boiling the water, but right next to the cut the water will keep the leather from burning.

A lot of experimenting will tell you more. In any case, you are better off using and saving your results with non- :proofgrade: that experiments will show you.

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I’ve never had an issue cutting through leather. If you mean 7 oz leather, I’d start with the settings for proofgrade thick leather and adjust from there.

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I have 3 different types of 4-5oz leather, each burn differently. Only one of them has almost no soot after cutting, but they all use the same settings. With that said, I don’t know that there is a specific setting to get around burning 7oz leather, if that is what you’re referring to, and not .07". I believe that @deirdrebeth is a leather afficianado and they may have some input on where to start, though.

I think the only way to get around burned edges “depending on what you call a burned edge” is to over size the design if needed and do a light sanding on the edge before burnishing. Do you have any photos of what your edges look like?

Sounds like your art is a raster - in order to get the score/cut options you’re going to need to have a vector line. If you’re a Premium member then the shapes they provide are vectors.

and yeah, I’ll echo what @caribis2 said - start with the PG leather settings, being sure to use Set Focus, and tweak from there. There is a lovely test cut that you can use once you have an idea of where to start.

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Practice run on thick leather

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I’ve been playing with some very heavy 9oz. leather for making some coasters. The cutting was definitely the issue. I have a GF Pro and worked all the way to 1 pass on 130 speed at full power before it would cut all the way through. I just made a small circle about 3/4" in diameter and took the time to systematically work through the setting until I got it to cut through. In the end, I didn’t see much difference in edge burn between 2 or 3 faster passes and 1 slower one. I’m really new at this also, so others with experience may have information about the benefits of multiple passes that I’m now aware of yet. I also use masking to protect the top. Once I get them cut, a little 220 grit sandpaper on the edge cleaned it up enough to burnish and finish pretty well with really no loss to size. It’s certainly a process of learning!

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Thank you, I’ll definitely try it. I did wet the leather before engraving, it seemed to work.

What setting did you find that works? I am using 8oz and burning.

It’s literally a laser - burning is how it works. Are you talking about smoke stains? If yes - you’ll need to clean those off. I use baby wipes and leather soap, some folks like @shrumgraphics (per their comment above) use sandpaper.

If you’re talking about something else, can you be more specific?