While XTool has an extensive catalogue of suggested settings for their laser, they don’t appear to agree with me on the selection of materials. So, I designed a quick matrix of power and speed settings to help find the optimal setting for new materials. 100 small squares increment either the power or the speed in 10% intervals from weakest or strongest. I then estimated based on my (ahem) extensive experience which quadrant the material would be in and cut just that quadrant.
The first material was some Richmond Industries Polybak, which is available here in Vancouver from E.Roko. For the cost of international shipping on a few sheets from Encompass, you can get a 4×8 sheet of “Laserboard.” This cuts on my XTool D1 (10W) laser at 20 mm/s and 50% power in one pass.
The second material was white matte board by Canson, which is available from Opus and probably Michaels. This material required much more power than I had guessed, and 8 mm/s with 80% power seems to be a good balance.
Pembroke:87 