Material Settings and Calibration
- Category
- Laser Projects
- Posted
- July 4, 2024
- By
- Jacob Lloyd — written with AI assistance, post-project
- Read time
- 4 min read
In plain terms: A reference page collecting the laser cutter settings I've actually tested and written down — which power and speed to use for acrylic sheet and metal cards. It also explains a simple process for figuring out settings for any new material. It saves you from wasting material on guesswork.
Every laser setting I actually tested and wrote down, on one page, exactly as recorded off the machine.
Confession time: this page existed on the old WordPress site as a shell. I made a "Material Settings and Calibration" category, wrote two sentences of intro, and never filed a single post under it. The real numbers were buried inside project write-ups the whole time. Rebuilding the site, I dug them out. So here's the compendium the old page promised: settings for cutting and engraving the materials I've used, and how to adjust your machine when you're facing something new.
tl;dr
- What it is: the power / speed / DPI / passes values I recorded across my laser projects, collected in one place.
- What it costs: nothing. Same as everything else here.
- What you need: an xTool F1, or any dual blue-diode + IR machine if you treat these as starting points.
- What you end up with: cut settings for 3 mm black acrylic, engrave settings for black and blue anodized aluminum cards, and my process for calibrating anything new.
The machine these numbers came from
All settings below are from my xTool F1: a 10 watt blue diode laser plus a 2 watt IR laser, driven by xTool Creative Space. Values are exactly as I entered them in XCS.
That matters. Settings don't transfer cleanly between machines, sometimes not even between two units of the same model. Lens condition, focus, and material batch all move the result. Steal these as starting points, then run the calibration process at the bottom before you commit real material.
Cutting: 3 mm black acrylic
This is what cut clean through 3 mm-thick black acrylic sheet on the F1's blue laser:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Laser type | Blue light |
| Power | 85 |
| Speed | 3 mm/s |
| Passes | 2 |
For a sense of real-world time: on the nametag placard project those settings cut the side pieces in 7.5 minutes, the baseplate in 6.5, and a small brace in 2. Acrylic is not a fast material on a 10 W diode. Bring a coffee.
Engraving: anodized aluminum business cards
The card blanks are 86 × 54 × 0.21 mm anodized aluminum, about $0.16 each in a 50-pack. The trick that makes them look good is a two-layer job, and it came out of the nametag placard and Man Card projects:
- Duplicate your design into two layers. Both layers are the same image.
- Top layer runs on the blue light laser, bottom layer on IR.
- Set processing to run by layer, top to bottom, so the blue light pass finishes before the IR pass starts.
Black anodized card
| Setting | Layer 1 — Blue light | Layer 2 — IR |
|---|---|---|
| Dot duration | 160 | 300 |
| Power | 30 | 85 |
| DPI | 280 | 350 |
| Passes | 1 | 1 |
| Bitmap mode | Jarvis | Jarvis |
| Engraving mode | Bi-directional | Bi-directional |
Blue anodized card
| Setting | Layer 1 — Blue light | Layer 2 — IR |
|---|---|---|
| Dot duration | 200 | 200 |
| Power | 90 | 100 |
| DPI | 650 | 650 |
| Passes | 1 | 1 |
| Bitmap mode | Jarvis | Jarvis |
| Engraving mode | Bi-directional | Bi-directional |
Two notes straight from the shop log. First, xTool's built-in reference setting for the blue cards was not enough power; I had to push past it to get a mark I was happy with, which is why the blue card runs hotter than the black one. Second, that 650 DPI is expensive: the black card engraved in 2.5 minutes, the blue card took 14.5. Same size card. Resolution is where your time goes.
Dialing in a new material
The original version of this page promised guides on adjusting your engraver for new materials. Here's the honest version: I don't have a magic chart. I have a loop, and the loop works on everything.
- Draw a small test grid. A row of small shapes, maybe 10 mm squares, in the corner of a scrap piece.
- Run it with your best-guess settings. Start from the machine's built-in reference for the closest material, or a table like the one above.
- Inspect. For cuts: did it go all the way through, and how melted is the edge? For engraves: is the mark even, and is the material warping or scorching?
- Change one setting. One. If you change power and speed and passes at the same time, you learn nothing. Nudge a single value and run the grid again.
- Save it as a preset the moment it looks right. Future you will not remember the number. Past me is why this page had to be reconstructed from three different project posts.
Gotchas
- Safety first, seriously. My laser is the most dangerous tool I own. I've caught things on fire, generated probably-toxic fumes, and stared at spots for a while after being dumb about glasses. Acrylic in particular wants ventilation. Do the safety training for your machine before copying any number off this page, and never leave a running job alone.
- Manufacturer references are a floor, not a truth. The stock xTool setting for blue anodized cards under-marked for me. Test before you run the real piece.
- Layer order is not optional on the two-laser card jobs. Blue light first, then IR, run by layer. Mixing the order changes the result.
- DPI is a time tax. 280 vs 650 DPI was the difference between 2.5 and 14.5 minutes on an identical card. Only pay for resolution the design actually needs.
- Coated materials vary by batch. Cheap anodized blanks are not consistent; a setting that's perfect on one 50-pack can be slightly off on the next. Keep a scrap card from each batch for testing.