Hi there. I’m trying to understand the specifics for safe leather options. I would love to surface print leather to cut. This process digitally applies ink to a white leather base. I know some of the leather choices are vegetable tanned. I am wondering what else I should determine to see if the leather is safe to cut. There are many different options with leatherette as well and The details of the leather on the website don’t offer much. I need to reach out to understand their process. I’m just not sure what to ask. Thanks for any advice.
There are two major types of safe to think of here: Safe for the machine, and safe for you.
All leathers will make gases that are absolutely terrible for you to breathe, that’s why we have such good ventilation/filters. No matter what type you cut, don’t breathe the fumes, like almost everything you laser. As for the machine, it’ll be fine as long as you don’t cut a very specific few types of materials.
Check out #4:
Normally I’d just have given you that link and that would have been it, but you’re in a special case: leather. Lots of fake leathers are PVC based, and cutting PVC will kill your Glowforge. So, if you’re going to be lasering fake leather, be sure it’s PVC free. Other than that, go nuts. 
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Thank you!
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