My first attempt at working with paper… Card stock is a joy to work with as it cuts so cleanly and predictably. I just laid a sheet of plain printer paper down under the stock I was cutting to prevent flashback, and used flat magnets to hold in place. fast and simple. Layout was done in Illustrator with some clipart from Glowforge. I also cut some foiled paper circles on the laser to put behind some of the cutouts to create a metallic effect. Everything went together with glue stick so there was no gluing mess. Cards are 2x2". Once you get the pattern, it’s easy to make lots of these in a short time, and kinda fun!
I’ve never mathed it out but the answer is “not too much”. I always cover the entire surface with printer paper if the material isn’t full size. As little open space as possible is best.
Not much, it helps if you have your settings dialed in. I sometimes mask cardstock (see my mandalas), but generally the flashback and smoke residue aren’t noticeable.
I’ll dig up my mesh source…
Here we go. I like these guys because the mesh is shipped flat, not rolled.
As for burning the interior of the tray, there’s some light scores. I always figured I’d line it with aluminum foil but never got around to it. Seems to be holding up well.
If you didn’t go through the thread I go deeper on fans and airflow/static pressure in one of the replies. It’s worth a read if you want to think of the technical limits.