Laser Cutter Parameters

In the 'Print' Menu you should be able to click on a 'Properties' button that will let you set printer-specific parameters for the print. You will typically have to do this before actually sending the job to the laser cutter. The important parameters are

• The size of the sheet (e.g. 24" x 12" for the unmodified files here). If you don't set this, there is a good chance it defaulted to 8.5"x11" and it will try to scale the drawing to that size which you obviously don’t want
• Rasterizing speed and power. This sets how deep text gets engraved into the wood. The higher the power or the slower the speed the deeper the engraving. Parameters that I have used that work well are 100% power and 70% speed.
• Vector speed and power. This must be set high enough that the laser cuts all the way through the material. If is very annoying if this is set too low as you typically end up trying to force the pieces apart and you get a bad edge. Thus it is good to have the power a bit high rather than a bit low. For 1/8 wood, I found that the setting of 22% speed and 100% power work well. There is also a frequency setting, and for wood it should be set low (approx 500).