Trying to find clean cutting parameters for Johnson Plastics Plus wood

Beyond the Manual
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Hello!
I bought some material from Johnson Plastics Plus: 1/8 single sided and double side Duro Laser Faux Maple/Cherry/Walnut. (I wish Glowforge had cheaper single sided proofgrade material. I love their wood, it’s just so expensive when I only need one sided material).

I found setting that cut them all, but it leaves the edges that were cut extremely dirty. I was hoping to get some direct on how to dial in my parameters to eliminate the soot/dirty edges; do I need to play with speed/power/# of passes or will it be a combination of all three?

I’ve tried the rice/salt method of removing the soot, but it doesn’t work that well for me, and I make a lot of small pieces so wiping them by hand takes a lot of time.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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You will have to adjust all three to find what works for your material, but some materials simply have a darker/sootier edge than others. There’s no way around that, the laser is burning it to cut thru.

It’s also why PG materials cost more, not just for their finish. They have been selected to give good results, and the settings have been figured out for you.

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You should be able to get through 1/8” material in a single pass. I would try increasing speed and power first, but you’ll have to test.

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I keep a set of these for each material and save them for future reference that can be referred back to at any time…

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