What do you use for 1/4" Materials?

[eflyguy]

Here was my test on 3/8" maple, focusing at different heights:

Help cutting half inch plywood

Focus height makes a big difference for thicker materials. You can’t just keep slowing it down or repeating the cut, but there’s also no general recommendation - you need to test for your material to get desired results. Pine is going to be a bear because it has so much resin content. Each of these pairs of cuts (end view of 3/8" maple which is actually .39") are at the same speed, but the right cut is focused on the surface, the left (deeper) one is focused at 1/2 that height: [image]

Here’s another by someone else, on acrylic:

Focus Height and Material Thickness of 3/8" Acrylic

This pic illustrates perfectly what is happening when the machine cuts, but also why you might have difficulty with thicker material. The beam has to be focused to vaporize the material, and can only be effective across a narrow range. Even if the first pass makes it halfway through the material, your second pass at a lower focus is going to have some of the beam power blocked/absorbed by the sides of the narrower channel above. It can be done, but all that absorbed power creates heat, which wi…

Both have pics, if you click on them.