Hey Guys,
I’ve taken the laser class, but cut very few things. I am hoping to cut stencils from poster board to sponge paint designs on the wall. It is ok to cut on the lasers, from what I’ve read, but what are the best settings you guys would use?
Thanks,
Thomas
@talkers suggests 50% speed 20% power on any ThunderNova machine. As a starting point. Always test first. Never leave a running laser. Happy Lasering.
EDIT: To @Tres0422 …
You could make yourself a “standard” test file that you always use to test settings.
Mine has four colors (RGB + Magenta). I always cut in the same order (R & M are for “engraving”, green is for inner cuts, and blue is for outer perimeter cuts.) My blue outer perimeter cut is a 1" square. This means I can test four different settings in the same cut, I only use 1" inch (plus a little margin) for each test, and it’s a very short test. When kerf is important, I cut and measure that 1" square.
After I get settings I like, then I save my test file as an .rld with a new name denoting the material I cut … something like 0pt125_acrylic.rld or matte_board.rld The next time I cut it won’t necessarily be exactly the same settings but it gives me a good starting point.
You could use any scheme you like, but as you accumulate more laser projects remembering what you did will become useful to you.
I do have a test file.
For Laser Office Hours (I’m hosting April 30th’s), I plan to use it as the sample for walk-ups who don’t have a project in hand.
Sorry. I figured you did. I intended to respond to @Tres0422 but I was quoting you in my response.
FWIW, if you use acrylic for your stencils, you can smear plaster over it for a raised stencil/border.
That is super cool. Thank you.
I have cut Dollar Tree poster board on the big (Thunder) lasers recently. I used:
Posterboard cut settings:
Min 20
Max 20
Speed 400