Prepare for laser cutting or engraving
If you are engraving then it is important to know that the smoke can stain the edges of the engraved material. To avoid this, use masking tape to protect the surface. You can easily peel off the masking tape after engraving.
Save settings when cutting or engraving depending on the type of material used and the thickness. Save these settings onto your computer with proper filenames so next time you can just use the saved settings when using the same material.
Always do test cuts before doing the final job on all the materials. This way you can see the results and if not the desired output then you can make certain changes on the laser setting.
If you are doing an important project then it is advisable to seek laser cutting services in Toronto.
Layering
Layering means putting different parts of a single design in layers. Most software will allow you to turn on or off various layer. This way you can print one layer at a time. It may be easier to put all layers in one file but there are many advantages to using layers. One, you could control the order of the cutting. Though lasers have the options of cutting line in the order they were set, you can also control the cutting process by turning on single layer at a time. Second, you can have the parts and designs in one file. You may have many layers but you can save them all in one file which could really help keeping order in things. Third, you can create guides or target lines in a certain layer without affecting the other layers.
Engraving onto wood
If you are planning on engraving a specific design on a piece of wood then it is important that you know the difference between engraving on a solid wood and engraving on a wood made of composite material such as plywood and MDF. Manufactured materials are easy to engrave on because of its uniform surface while natural woods do not have a finish surface. The grains on the wood will not have the same effect when burned. Dark grains are hard while light grains are soft. Natural wood will give you different patterns when engraved. If your end result needs to be uniform then it is advisable to use plywood because its surface is more uniform.
Overlapping lines
It is important to make sure that lines do not overlap when cutting multiple parts simultaneously. This could lead to similar lines overlapping so pay attention to details.
Raster engraving and Vector Cut
Raster engraving is a longer process compared to vector cuts. Vector cuts are done faster since it only needs to trace the lines of the cut while raster engraving travels the entire design from left to right and move down one hair then repeat the same process until the whole design is engraved.