User:Ssstephen/lasercutting-paper

This is a table of laser cutting tests with paper in the WDKA digital lab. Paper is really temperamental so the power and speed settings really need to be fine tuned. Also its generally better to cut one sheet at a time or else you will go on fire.

Best starting point:

If you have never used the laser cutter at all read this page first: https://static.mywdka.nl/materialstation/lasercutter/

When you're ready to test your paper, copy the settings from LS025 below for cutting and etching paper around 150gms. Then tweak it to suit your paper better, the aim is to get a good cut/etch but not take too long. It you are looking for a more specific paper maybe it is somewhere else in the table. And if you like add your tests here to make it easier for the next person :)

Test ID	Machine	Material	Settings	Cut					Etch					Runtime
			Thickness	Power	Speed	PPI	Z-axis	Flow	Power	Speed	PPI	Z-axis	Flow
LS025	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Cream paper from college (final bookmarks)	0.5mm	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	20%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	00:08:49

All the tests

Test ID	Date	Machine	Material	File	Settings	Cut							Kisscut							Etch							Runtime
					Thickness	Used	Power	Speed	PPI	Z-axis	Flow	Result	Used	Power	Speed	PPI	Z-axis	Flow	Result	Used	Power	Speed	PPI	Z-axis	Flow	Result
LS001	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Red	perforation1.svg	0.5mm	y	35%	80%	500	0.5mm	100%	Didnt cut through. Alignment on printer is not in the corner, but right and down a little	y	20%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Quite faint but consistent, no gaps	n	45%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%
LS002	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Red	perforation1.svg	1mm	y	35%	80%	500	1mm	100%	Still didnt cut through, not much noticable difference from LS001	y	20%	50%	500	1mm	100%	Quite faint but consistent, no gaps, not noticably different from ls001	n	45%	100%	500	1mm	100%
LS003	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Red	perforation2.svg	3mm	y	35%	80%	500	3mm	100%	Same as LS001 and LS0002, thickness is not the answer. Better svg file though	y	20%	50%	500	3mm	100%	Same as LS001 and LS0002, thickness is not the answer. Better svg file though	n	45%	100%	500	3mm	100%
LS004	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Red	perforation4.svg	0.5mm	y	70%	80%	500	0.5mm	100%	These cuts were soooo much better than LS001 to LS003. Much better file too as it is way faster, with less perforation marks. Some small areas not cut the whole way through	y	70%	80%	500	0.5mm	100%	A little too heavy, some cut through in parts of the bed	n	45%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%		00:05:39
LS005	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Green	perforation3.svg	0.5mm	y	70%	80%	500	0.5mm	100%	Aligned flush left and 2mm from top, that was not compensated enough. maybe 4mm down and 2mm to the right next time. This file is fast in the cutting part and very pretty/efficient	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Pretty good, dark contrast no cut through	y	45%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Really consistent, no cut through, but a bit light it would be nicer if it burned for contrast	00:04:04
LS006	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Green	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	90%	80%	500	0.5mm	100%	Alignment still wrong, 4mm and 2mm. Next time will try 3mm 1.5 and if that doesnt work switch to file 4. Cut was good but a lot of burning on the back	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Same as LS005	y	60%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Like LS005 quite light but nice quality	00:03:03
LS007	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Green	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	70%	60%	500	0.5mm	100%	Alignment good I thing thats 3mm from the top and -1mm from the left (according to the rulers). Cut better than LS006 but still a small bit of burning	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Same as LS006	y	80%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Heavier than LS006 and darker, better	00:03:03
LS008	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Yellow	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	60%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Alignment could have been 0.2mm to the right. Try -0.3mm. Cut was very similar to LS007, still burned through	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Same as before. Looks good on the yellow paper	y	100%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Etch was too heavy lots of show through. Also starts to get a little blurry	00:03:03
LS009	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Yellow	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	Good alignment, -0.5mm from the left, 3mm from the top, using rulers	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%		y	90%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Still some cut through	00:03:03
LS010	20221115	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Paperpicks A3 160gsm Coloured Card Orange	perforation4.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	Same settings as LS009 but with a different file, only etch changed	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%		n	80%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%		00:05:39
LS011	20221116	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Windsor Newton Tints Pastel grained surface 160gsm Brown, striped side up	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	Maybe the best cut so far, very little burning. Like everything previously, there is a lot more burning in the bottom right corner, maybe this is to do with focus? Maybe the print bed is dirty?	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Looks lovely on this paper which browns well, but a little too strong as it came through in a few places (very few! much closer than the etching for example)	y	80%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Like the kisscut, looks great on this paper. Cut through in quite a few places though so needs to be gentler	00:03:03
LS012	20221116	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Windsor Newton Tints Pastel grained surface 160gsm Cream, hammered side up	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	This light paper burns really dark and looks great, even on the edges. Again burn marks bottom right like LS011 and previous	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	A few holes, so slightly too strong. Also the colour of the cut varies on the front, as this paper goes black when exposed to the laser for longer (or multiple times?)	y	80%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	The etch is visible from the back, but no holes. I think this was quite successful	00:03:03
LS013	20221116	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Acetate and brown waxed paper (two sheets, i think the brown was the back of the acetate pad)	perforation3a.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	The acetate melted rather than burnt, looks really cool. The paper is so light that I needed to pause the cutter and put some weights along the edges (offcuts from the bin). Watch the heights of the weights, as the laser comes down close to the page. The brown page underneath didnt cut through very consistently, but I wonder if it helped the acetate to cut well somehow.	y	40%	50%	500	0.5mm	100%	Looks great, but mostly because it actually cut the whole way through in most places.	y	80%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Doesnt look nice, but this is mostly because this corner of the page lifted off the print bed and I think the laser was out of focus. Although maybe interesting because the paper bubbled in weird ways.	00:03:03
LS014	20221116	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Found card: corrugated shoe box from www.sacha.shoes, white on one side black on the other. Approx 1.5mm deep. White side up.	perforation5-20mm-squares.svg	3mm (used digilab corrugated card preset, need to check details of this)	y						Quite close to correct, maybe needs to be slightly stronger because some cuts didnt quite make it through the bottom layer (paper printed black)	n							n							00:10:00
LS015	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Found paper: jazz festival poster, printed side down	perforation5-20mm-squares.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	Smells really bad after I took it out. Problem with found paper you dont know what's in it.	n							n							00:17:04
LS016	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Found paper: jazz festival poster, printed side down	perforation5-20mm-squares.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	60%	500	0.5mm	100%	Still a bit stinky but not as bad	n														00:17:04
LS017	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Found paper: jazz festival poster, printed side up	perforation5-20mm-squares.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	100%	250	0.5mm	100%	Why is the speed the same for all of these?	n														00:17:04
LS018	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Found paper: jazz festival poster, printed side down	perforation5-20mm-squares.svg	0.5mm (throughput +3)	y	50%	100%	250	0.5mm	100%		n														00:17:04
LS019	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Windsor Newton Tints Pastel grained surface 160gsm brown, hammered side up	perforation6- bookmarks.svg	various	y	various	various	500	0.5mm	100%		n													disaster.	unfinished
LS020	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	Windsor Newton Tints Pastel grained surface 160gsm white, hammered side up	perforation6- bookmarks.svg	various	y	40%	80%	500	0.1mm		poifecto nearly, very few burn marks	n							y	30%	100%	500	0.1mm		Really nice on all text except the bold titles, not clear enough font for this
LS021	20221123	VLS 6.6 (big cutter)	The Plague by Albert Camus	moss.svg	12mm	y	40% I think	60% I think	500	12mm		Worked pretty well, had to lower the platten. The cover wasnt completely flat so some focus issues. Alignment a bit tricky too. A test on the back that was too strong went through a lot of pages which was interesting
LS022	20221205	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Blue and green a4 copier paper	perforation7-bookmarks.svg	0.5mm	y	30%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Cool, needs to be so gentle for such thin paper	n							y	5%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	I think anything would cut this paper. Very little burning especially on the blue	unfinished
LS023	20221205	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Cream paper from college (final bookmarks)	perforation7-bookmarks.svg	0.5mm	y	75%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	too strong lots of burn marks. Did need to be a lot stronger than above	n							y	20%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%	Nice, needed to be stronger than above	unfinished
LS024	20221205	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Cream paper from college (final bookmarks)	perforation7-bookmarks.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%		n							y	20%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%		00:18:03
LS025	20221205	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Cream paper from college (final bookmarks)	perforation8-bookmarks.svg	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	This is hopefully a faster cut because it has less raster	n							y	20%	100%	500	0.5mm	100%		00:08:49
LS026	20221205	PLS 4.75 (small cutter)	Cream paper from college (final bookmarks)	perforation8-bookmarks.svg (kiss only)	0.5mm	y	50%	40%	500	0.5mm	100%	Just kiss cut for speed	n							n							00:08:49
LS027	202303	(publication station cutter)	Sulphate paper 250gsm	laser22.svg	0.5mm		100%	20%				great stuff