The Complete Laser Cutting Materials List
Laser cutters give you a variety of options to create custom items. Despite being called laser cutters, they are used to cut, engrave, and mark various materials. While you might often see laser cutters being used on wood, this isn’t the only material they can handle. In fact, there are numerous laser cutter materials.
However, not all laser cutters are created equal, different types of laser machines are suited for different materials. It’s crucial to ensure that the laser cutter you choose is compatible with your desired materials. And materials respond differently to lasers; while some are safe and process well, others might release toxic fumes or melt under the laser's heat. Therefore, it’s important to identify the right materials for laser cutting.
In this guide on laser cutting materials, we'll explore which materials are laser-friendly and the appropriate laser machines to handle them. Moreover, we will provide some tips to help you achieve excellent results on your laser cutting projects with the materials.
In This Article
- What Materials Can be Cut Using a Laser Cutter
- What Materials Should Not be Cut or Engrave with a Laser Cutter?
- Laser Types for Different Materials
- Laser Cutter Settings for Different Materials
- Laser Cutting With xTool P2
- FAQs
What Materials Can be Cut Using a Laser Cutter
Laser cutting is a subtractive manufacturing technology that uses a high-power laser beam to melt, burn, or vaporize the material.
The process begins with a design file loaded into the laser cutter software. As the machine starts, the laser cutter moves the beam along the design file’s path as instructed by the software to ensure accuracy and repeatability.
The high-intensity laser beam from the laser heats the material, and the designated areas are either melted, burned away, or vaporized, leaving precise and clean cuts.
The beauty of laser cutting lies in its adaptability. The laser cutter settings—like the laser's power, speed, and duration—are adjustable, making it possible to cut a variety of materials, including wood, acrylic, leather, fabrics, rubber, paper, and metal, with clean and polished cuts.
Typically, if the laser cutter can cut a material, it can also engrave it.
1. Wood for Laser Cutting
Wood is one of the most popular laser cutter materials. It has a natural and warm appearance that can suit many laser cutting projects, such as signs, ornaments, jewelry, toys, puzzles, and more. Wood can be cut in various thicknesses and shapes, depending on the power and speed of the laser.
There are different types of wood that can be used for laser cutting and engraving, including natural wood, plywood, and MDF.
However, wood is a flammable material and can produce some unexpected burn marks and charred edges. To avoid this problem, you’ll need to adjust the laser power and speed settings, use masking tape, air assist, and a honeycomb table. You can check out this detailed guide on how to avoid burn marks when laser cutting wood.
2. Plastic and Acrylic for Laser Cutting
Plastic is also a common material for laser cutting and engraving. They are synthetic materials that come in various colors, thicknesses, and finishes. They can be cut with a smooth edge and a glossy surface by a laser.
Acrylic or plexiglass, is the most popular plastic for laser cutting. By laser cutting acrylic, especially clear ones, you can create beautiful glass-style artwork, such as ornaments, signs, displays, jewelry, and wall art.
However, not all plastics are suitable for laser cutting. Some plastics may contain chlorine or other harmful substances that can produce toxic fumes when heated by the laser. Therefore, it is important to check the composition of the plastic before cutting it with a laser. And always maintain a good ventilation when laser cutting plastics.
3. Metal for Laser Cutting
Using a laser cutter or laser engraver for cutting metal can be a bit tricky. You will need specific laser types for this purpose. However, laser engravers work extremely well for engraving metal. Metal is a great laser engraver material that allows you to make a wide array of personalized items or engraved gifts.
4. Leather for Laser Cutting
Once you’ve practiced a bit with other laser cutting materials and laser engraving materials, you might want to try your hand at leather. It’s an expensive material, but the results look amazing. You can create wallets, belts, purses, jewelry (especially bracelets) , keychains and more. You can refer to the laser engraving leather and laser cutting leather guide to get the best practice with processing leather materials using a laser cutter.
5. Cardboard for Laser Cutting
Cardboard is one of the most inexpensive and easiest laser cutting materials to work with. Model-building pieces are one of the most common laser cut cardboard projects. Typically, you can choose between corrugated, gray and cellulose cardboard.
6. Fabric for Laser Cutting
Fabric is a newer option for laser cutting materials. Laser cutting and engraving fabric works as a form of digital embroidery. You get similar results in a lot less time. While leather is obviously one type of textile, cotton, nylon, polyester, and silk are all options too.
7. Paper for Laser Cutting
In most cases, when laser cutting paper, you’ll likely be cutting cardboard. However, thick cardstock paper is also excellent material for laser cutting. A creative project to try with paper is custom cards with a laser-cut center scene. These are beautiful and make great gifts.
8. Rubber for Laser Cutting
Rubber is another laser engraving material that can be cut or engraved using a laser machine. Though it is a widely used material for various purposes but is not very common in laser cutting. But with a laser, you can use it for making stamps, keychains, mats, personalized apple watch bands and other items that require rubber.
Laser is the right option for rubber cutting because it offers fine and perfect cutting results. The edges are smooth and perfect, which cannot be achieved by any other method. It can cut various types of rubber, including natural rubber, silicone rubber, and synthetic rubber. However, you need to make sure proper ventilation because of the fumes produced during laser cutting.
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