Laser settings — beginner's guide

Pick your brand, model, material, and operation to get suggested power, speed, and pass settings. Compiled from manufacturer docs and the maker community.

Brand

Machine

Material

Operation

Select your laser brand

Don't see your brand? Pick the closest wattage class — settings transfer well between same-power machines.

Always test on scrap first.

These are conservative starting points. Your results will vary by machine condition, lens cleanliness, focus accuracy, material brand, and humidity. Run a small power/speed test grid before committing to a final piece.

Before you start — safety

🌬️

Always ventilate

Every material releases fumes when burned. Use an exhaust fan vented outside, or a filtered air purifier rated for laser engravers. Never run a laser in an unventilated room.

👁️

Wear laser safety glasses

Diode lasers (450 nm blue-violet) are far more dangerous to eyes than CO₂ lasers. Wear OD4+ glasses rated for your laser's wavelength. Never look directly at the beam.

🔥

Never leave unattended

Laser jobs can catch fire — especially cardboard, cork, and wood cuts. Stay nearby, keep a fire extinguisher or a damp cloth within reach, and never leave a running machine unattended.

🚫

Know what NOT to cut

Never cut PVC, vinyl, or ABS — they release chlorine and other toxic gases. Chrome-tanned leather releases hexavalent chromium. Mirrors and bare metal reflect the beam dangerously.

🎯

Focus before every job

An out-of-focus laser dramatically reduces cutting power and burns wider than intended. Use your machine's autofocus, a focus tool, or the manual focus procedure before each job.

🧹

Clean your machine regularly

Dirty lenses and mirrors scatter the beam and reduce power output. Clean mirrors weekly with a cotton swab and lens cleaning solution. A dirty lens can overheat and crack.

Engrave, score, or cut — what's the difference?

◼

Engrave

The laser scans back and forth in thin lines (like an inkjet printer, but burning). It removes the surface layer to create shading, photos, or filled artwork.

LightBurn: Fill layer
Glowforge: Engrave

➖

Score

A single vector pass at medium power. Burns a shallow groove — doesn't cut all the way through. Great for fine outlines, text, fold lines, and crease marks.

LightBurn: Line (low power)
Glowforge: Score

✂

Cut

Full-power vector pass to cut all the way through the material. Used to cut out shapes, make holes, or slice sheet material into finished pieces.

LightBurn: Line (full power)
Glowforge: Cut

Settings glossary

Term	What it means	Beginner tip
Power %	What percentage of the laser's maximum output to use. Higher = deeper/faster burn. CO₂ machines wear the laser tube faster at 100%, so most settings use 50–80%.	For engraving: start low and go up. For cutting: you usually need 70%+ on most materials.
Speed	How fast the laser head moves. Faster = less time on each point = shallower burn. Slower = deeper, more risk of charring. In LightBurn: mm/s. In Glowforge: 1–1000 (1 = slowest).	Speed and power work together — halving speed ≈ doubling effective power on the material.
Passes	How many times the laser runs the same path. Multiple passes cut deeper — useful when a single pass can't cut through. Each pass risks moving the material slightly.	For cuts: use fewer passes at higher power rather than many passes at low power — cleaner edges.
Line interval	The gap between scan lines in Engrave/Fill mode. Smaller interval = finer detail + more overlap + longer job time. Also shown as LPI (lines per inch) in Glowforge.	0.1 mm (≈254 LPI) is a good all-round starting point. Go finer for photos, coarser for quick fills.
Air assist	A nozzle that blows compressed air at the cut point. Clears smoke debris, cools the material, and dramatically improves cut quality and edge cleanliness.	If your machine has air assist, turn it on for every cut job — it makes a huge difference to edge quality and reduces charring.
Focus / focal length	The laser lens has a fixed focal point distance. If the material surface is too close or too far from the lens, the beam is wider and less powerful.	Use your machine's included focus tool or a manual thickness measurement before every job. Even 1 mm off focus reduces cutting power significantly.
DPI	Dots per inch — equivalent to LPI for raster engraving. Higher DPI = finer resolution = slower job. Glowforge uses LPI; LightBurn uses mm interval.	300 DPI (≈0.085 mm) is a sweet spot for most engraving. Go higher only for photos on smooth materials.

How to run a test grid

A test grid (also called a material test) burns a small matrix of power × speed combinations so you can find the perfect settings for your specific machine and material batch without wasting material.

1
Cut a small scrap piece
Use the same material you'll engrave on your final piece — ideally from the same pack. A 50 × 50 mm square is enough for a full test grid.
2
Create a power/speed matrix in your software
In LightBurn: Edit → Material Test. Set your power range from the suggested value ±20%, and speed range ±30%. A 5×5 grid (25 cells) is usually enough.
3
Run the test at a small scale
Make each cell about 10×10 mm. The whole grid fits on a credit-card-sized piece of scrap. Run it with ventilation on and stand by.
4
Inspect the result
For engraving: look for even, consistent depth without charring or raised edges. For cutting: check the cut went all the way through cleanly without excessive charring or melted edges.
5
Save your winning settings
Note the winning cell's power and speed values. In LightBurn you can save these as a named material in the Material Library for next time.

LightBurn shortcut: Use the built-in Material Test generator under Edit → Material Test. Set your starting power/speed ranges from the values above and it builds the grid automatically.