Hey Kim - as @dklgood mentioned, you can check the “Beyond the Manual” section for possible settings. However, I would actually recommend cutting your design out of a piece of medium proofgrade acrylic and using it as a template for cutting/tooling by hand.
Sometimes, laser cutting thicker pieces of leather can lead to charred edges or areas that don’t cut all the way through due to the uneven fibers of the leather. To avoid this, I cut the pattern with acrylic and use it like you would any other template for leatherworking. Hope this helps!
I bought my GF with the idea of leather working. so far I have engraved luggage tags. not an aggressive start years after getting BEAMER.
I never thought about the template idea. Duh… I clearly would be making multiples of things. and this would speed things up. So thank you for this info!!!
As a very stingy member with meager supplies … just what it came with and a little wood I would rather cut it from cardboard and score it into the leather to have a cut line. This design won’t be made again as it is specific to my husbands multi tool (unless he doesn’t take care of it well). Thank you for your advice. It is very much appreciated!
If you go this route you can also score a light line directly on your leather with the GF and save the cardboard step. I’ve done this for one offs - but I do prefer @Tim_Ung’s method of making an acrylic template for anything in multiples, it works so nicely with a rotary cutter.
Thank you so much for sharing this leather tutorial. Super helpful with lots of great tips to help sort out the nuances of leatherwork with a Glowforge.
