Plywood?

I want to use 3/8 ash nontreated plywood to cut & engrave on. I want to know if I can & what settings you’d recommend?

Yes you can but you should experiment for the settings that work best for you.
Also, remember plywood may or may not cut well depending on any fillers that may be inside it. Do a search on here and you will find lots of info on plywood.

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I just want it to cut right the first time.

You are going to have to test the material you actually have. There is plenty of info here on how to go about finding the best settings, but a couple of cautions:

  • the machine is optimized for cutting ~1/8" material. 3/8" is going to be a challenge
  • most non-Proofgrade/store-bought material tends to be very inconsistent
  • Expect a lot of charring on thicker materials

Do you have masking to prevent flashback and soot around the cut edges?

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That’s unlikely to happen.

3/8" is thicker than the maximum thickness a 40/45W laser can reasonably cut (1/4") and whether you can cut it at all will depend on what the core of that plywood is made of.

Coming up with some setting that’ll be guaranteed to cut it cleanly the first time is an impossible ask.

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Good luck with that.

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you may need to cut several times (3x then do it 2 additional times)
I really would do a test on a piece of scrap (measure twice, cut once)

As my friend Scotty says “Yah canna change the laws of physics”

Jonathan

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true a couple will do nicely

That only works with the GF Proofgrade. Anything else you have to research and test, that’s just the nature of machines that cut things. Even a Cricut requires testing for non-standard materials.

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Check out #6:

Thank you everybody. I just took it as a no, you can’t cut it & moved on. You can engrave it though & it looks great!