Felt cutting settings

Would have posted to “Tips and Tricks” but I’m not haven’t posted enough to have privileges to post there.

I just picked up some felt from amazon (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HS1Y446) and had success cutting with these settings on my GF Pro:

Speed: 300
Power: 40

Could probably be a bit more aggressive but that gave me a good cut without too much burning on the edges.

Enjoy!

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Thanks for the settings!

I moved your post to the “Beyond the Manual” section in accordance with Glowforge non-Proofgrade references/settings.

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Awesome! I always appreciate a link to the product as well if I want to duplicate settings exactly…very handy! Thanks for sharing! :grinning:

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Are there any discussions on what types of felt are and are not laserable? I don’t know what the synthetic felts are made of, and it would be awesome if there’s already a post on good resources.

I chose wool felt because I figured that the worse thing that would happen is my things would smell like burnt hair (they did a bit). Synthetic wool seems to be made from polyester which a quick search of the internet seems laser safe. I’d love to hear other’s experiences.

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I have a box of self-adhesive, polyester-felt I’m planning on getting to by the weekend. I hope to post something.

I get that from Michael’s and use it as backing on a lot of living hinge boxes. Gives a nice interior and helps keep the living hinges from distorting. Kind of like fabric backers on book spines.

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Fake (non-wool) felt can be made from a few types of plastics, but polyester is by far the most common in my experience. If it’s not labeled, it’s usually polyester.

I’d be somewhat surprised to see any made from anything not laser-safe. (PVC felt seems unlikely.)

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Google does show something out there - but doesn’t seem likely you would want to laser it:

FWIW, Ground Packing Felt is something entirely different from crafting felt. It is used when putting down a gravel base like for a driveway or a road to prevent your fill from driving too deeply down into the ground (and requiring even more fill on top).

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I can verify that these settings work very well with 1.5mm thick self-adhesive craft felt (Darice FLT-0232). No scorching, clean cut-through.

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Is rayon safe for lasering? I’m really cautious about anything with any plastics of any kind other than acrylic from a trusted source because of the potential to create chemicals that harm the GF.

Was looking around at felt because I wanted to make some coasters ala the Grovemade ones:
https://grovemade.com/product/walnut-coaster-set/?initial=194

Rayon is made from natural cellulose such cotton. So no halogens, so should be as hazardous as burning wood.

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let us know how it goes if you brave it. Rayon I believe burns to a nasty melted mess so settings will likely be tricky.

Thanks @konkers! I used the settings for a tiny felt project I’m working on. I didn’t realize the felt would shrink during the cut, but it sealed the edges nicely. I ended up bumping the power to 50 because the pointed areas didn’t quite cut all the way (I need these for the negative space, so the bottom right image is the final).

Top is first try, bottom is second. This saved me an hour of cutting felt and cussing; these are only about 1.5 inches high. Total glowforge time was 20 seconds :rofl:

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Thanks for the informative post. I want to try this myself.
Was that craft felt or wool?

Just craft felt from Michaels, I had some left over from a previous project :slight_smile:

Hi there! I was wondering what your settings were for the felt and what kind of felt you used?
Thank you!

Erm… they referenced the OP’s post which has settings and also included a link to the felt they used?

What material setting did you select?