Lasers Over Los Angeles – Laser Cutting Service

Plywood

Plywood can be cut using the laser, however we generally recommend using MDF if possible. If a wood grain is desired there are many MDF products that use an MDF core with the same wood veneer that is used on plywood core sheets, but with the MDF core it will cut much more consistently and cleaner. We can cut up to 3/8″ plywood for certain manufacturers’ materials, however it depends on the composition of the material and the glue used: phenolic glue tends to shine up and reflect the laser’s energy out of the cut resulting in a poor or incomplete cut, urea glue is the way to go if you are laser cutting the material. However some times this can be difficult to determine as most stores don’t have this info available as most people don’t care what type of glue is in their plywood. Exterior-grade plywood usually contains phenolic glue so definitely pass that up. Also on poorer quality plywoods the interior layers can have voids in them that also tend to catch fire when cutting, it’s basically impossible to guarantee the absence of voids but a higher-quality product can reduce the chances. These guys got so frustrated that they started getting their own wood custom made in order to have a consistent product which makes sense when you run a jigsaw puzzle company 🙂