Most of what I plan to do with it is automotive related. Anodized Aluminum, Stainless Steel (with Cermark), Different kinds of wood (for interior inlays), Leather (cut and engrave for automotive interior applications), Painted Carbon Fiber (to reveal pattern below)… Things like that…
Ive been collecting scraps of exotic woods and I am going to make a set of something out of my exotic woods. I also have tons of access to Formica and other laminates so i think i will make stuff out of that as well (business cards 1st)
I’m curious to see how recycled CDs look. I love the colors they give off.
If you are cutting formica make sure your ventilation setup is in order since it releases formaldehyde when it burns.
Probably not enough to do you any real harm, but definitely irritating!
I’ve been wanting to test out engraving tiles that will be sublimated on (either before or after) and stone coasters that will have images stamped on them with paint. I have a collection of antique crocheted doilies, and I was imagining cutting one’s outline out of a stretched piece of canvas, so after the canvas was painted, the doily could be stitched into that blank space.
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Thank you!! i had no idea! ill definitely
have it hooked up anyways! How do you know that?
I used to have a job in a shop that made formica laminated furniture.
Routing off the overhanging material after glueing up the laminate was a super stinky operation if you let the router bits get dull (which they always were).
We did some research to find out if the boss was killing us. 
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good to know! I work at a place just like that right now!
Fabric. Burlap and canvas, maybe even some silk if the other stuff comes out well.
We have a thing for reclaimed wood - old mill flooring, 100+ year old furniture parts, bowling alley lanes… anything we can rescue that has a interesting story to tell. Maple, Mahogany, Walnut, Cherry - we have LOTS of nice strips, cut offs and usable scraps to work with. Yes, it’s wood - but some pretty unique wood…
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Just read this article on making a bowl from recycled magazines. I imagine it would save time to cut stacks of magazine pages at one time. But now I’m wondering if there is a greater risk of fire with that much paper. Also, perhaps it has to be pre-glued and if the pages are pre-glued, then I would have to research what type of glue works best with a laser since i have read in other threads that the glue can cause issues. At any rate it appears the layers of the above mentioned bowl were folded several times first in the close-up photo.
The topic from @Christopher on dry moly lube has me wondering if it will be possible to bond a layer of graphite to an object, to be used as a substrate to electroplate on. It could provide for some interesting effects if workable. Or maybe it will be a cheap way to make graphene.
You may want to look into electroless plating. We used an electroless nickel process at my old job. I was able to nickel plate a 3d printed pla Owl.
Thank you, but, I’ve tried a few different types and was unimpressed with the results.
Micarta and G10
I am planning on engraving soap bars. This is low-brow compared to the wonderful ideas I see posted by others. But, as a novice to all of this I am all about “what can go wrong”! And, "who doesn’t love a bar of soap with a picture of either your “loved one” or your “loathed one” to improve shower time!
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I also want to try some tile. Not coaster sized ones, but 1"x1" tiles to replace some board game pieces.
The most unusual material I plan on trying is avocado seeds. I noticed that they turn very dark as they dry out. I’m curious as to what the laser will do to them. I have a few drying now. They tend to warp as they dry, so I’ll probably cut them into slices first to even the surface. If I can cut them thin enough without breaking, I’ll try cutting a silhouette into them.
After hearing about the tagua nuts, I’m looking forward to hearing how that turns out.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this! And for some odd reason, I began thinking up tag lines to go with engraved soap bars. “Don’t get yourself into a lather about it”…