Somewhat Comprehensive Testing of Settings for Cutting Paper and Cardstock

Beyond the Manual
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Be sure to play with number of passes on chipboard if you’re interested in reducing char.

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Great write-up!

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Thanks! I’ve done some of this, but with inconsistent results.

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That’s awesome! I have some chipboard projects in the queue so am looking forward to seeing it!

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Your efforts are abgift to all of us that want to do more with paper cutting/engraving. Thank you so much. I am curious to hear about multiple sheets as it would cut down process time on invites/thanks you notes.
Again…thanks.
Junie

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Great testing.

I’ve found in the past that low speed does significantly help with better corner behavior, as the speed differential between the straights and corners is lower. Also, using low tack spray with a backing board helps prevent backsplash and keeps any cut bits from flying around.

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Thank you for sharing this!

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Thanks for sharing. You’ve done some good work! I’ll need to translate it into metric, but I think I’ve got the general idea.

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I’m a relative newbie so forgive me if my question is dumb. I look at the picture you provided and I don’t know what the diff between 500/65 and 500/15 on most of those. Are the X’s and the curves both ‘cuts’? I guess I just need to get educated a little. I’m really wanting to dive into paper cutting but obviously have not done any yet. Thanks in advance for any help.

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Is that transparent masking a paper or a film? Is it safe to use in CO laser? No pvc?

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You’re amazing, thank you thank you thank you!

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WOW very impressive. I will be referring to your cut charts over and over again.

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Extensive testing for sure. Bookmarked. :+1::+1::+1::+1:

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I tried using masking film, but it just wasn’t sticky enough. Turned out not to be worth the hassle.

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This is an impressive list of test cuts, great data. I have a pile of test cuts and engraves from paper to cardboard and some wood samples too. Thank you for sharing. :+1:

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When you do proofgrade stuff, there are “cut” and “score” presets which basically cut through the material (cut) or just part of it (score).

When you use manual settings the difference between a cut and a score is basically whether it goes through the material. For paper there’s an in between: not quite going through but leaving enough fibers so that you can easily tear the sheet apart by hand. All the test cuts (curve, cross, line) in a row are all done using the same settings. The goal of this experiment is to determine what settings are needed for a cut.

The photos show only the top and not whether the laser cut through, so it looks like the material is cut in all of them except for the very clearly not cut through ones. The photos honestly aren’t super helpful; I’d use the table in the top post to get a better idea of what each setting does.

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Thank you for doing all this work. It make me more eager than ever to jump into burning paper in the laser. I think a lot of amazing work can be done with paper and the precision of the laser adds a lot to what can be done.

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Thank you for all the great info. This is very helpful.

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Amazing!!! Thank you so much for posting this!!

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So, I have some sample paper to cut and I am getting a consistant error that the GF cannot measure the height of the material. I have put in a thickness manually it still does not register a thickness to cut either. The image is a .PNG file imported to GF.

We have a single 20lb sheet held in place with magnets.

image

image

Any thoughts?