I used the Proofgrade settings for medium cherry hardwood for the Padauk. If I had to do it again, I would use the settings for medium basswood hardwood instead, as that produces slightly less char on the cut and leaves a more uniform and cleaner engrave.
There’s a crack in the base on the left. The fracture happened during the laminating and clamping operation, and likely resulted from the unfortunate alignment of the grain of the wood with the laser cut slot. So be careful to avoid directly aligning the wood grain with the edges of the slots. Also stack the two layers in the base with the grain perpendicular to increase the durability. Or use walnut plywood instead.
We had tried adding engravings to the flames, but keeping it simple, with the focus on the natural look of the Padauk worked out the best.
