Cutting abilities on different woods

[James A. Wolfe]

Hello all,
I'm getting ready to place an order for plywood and some hardwoods from Sloan's and/or Wildwood and I need to find out if I'm going to have problems with any particular species. I bought a beautiful piece of purpleheart that will work out nicely with my scrollsaw but the laser wouldn't cut it. I'd seen that posted here before but it was such a pretty, clear piece that I had to have it. Luckily, I have options besides the photon saw.;)
They are offering mahogany, walnut, maple, oak, basswood, padauk, peruvian walnut and cherry in 1/8" and 1/16" sizes.
Also, any user report about these two suppliers would be appreciated as well.

Thanx,

Jim

[Lee DeRaud]

Hello all,
I'm getting ready to place an order for plywood and some hardwoods from Sloan's and/or Wildwood and I need to find out if I'm going to have problems with any particular species. I bought a beautiful piece of purpleheart that will work out nicely with my scrollsaw but the laser wouldn't cut it. I'd seen that posted here before but it was such a pretty, clear piece that I had to have it. Luckily, I have options besides the photon saw.;)
They are offering mahogany, walnut, maple, oak, basswood, padauk, peruvian walnut and cherry in 1/8" and 1/16" sizes.
Walnut, maple, cherry work great, as does canary wood. (See my coaster threads for examples.)
Oak needs more power, so tends to burn a bit more.
Padauk somewhere in between.
Mahogany cuts ok but burns like crazy so back off the PPI setting as far as you can get away with.
Basswood I haven't tried, but poplar works ok so I expect basswood would be no problem.
Peruvian walnut...I've never even seen any, as far as I know.

Actually at 1/8" or thinner, I haven't had much trouble with anything except purpleheart. Rosewood is also a bit iffy once you get past 1/8", but that stuff varies wildly from piece to piece depending on oil content.

Note: I'm talking solid wood here, not plywood. I haven't tried any plywood thicker than 1/32", but I'm told that the laser can have problems cutting the glue. OTOH, most of the 1/8" ply I've seen is two face layers of veneer on a single layer of MDF substrate (just two glue layers)...that kind probably works ok.

[Mike Shauer]

My 30 watt Versa will cut 1/4" Baltic birch with no problem. It does leave the edges dark thou. I have cut 3/8s Cedar board in one pass but it but it slows way down and burns a little. I'm still using the original driver not the advanced ones so I have no idea what settings. Thought I would learn Corel first then change the software.

Cheers, Mike

[Joe Pelonio]

I tried to cut some 1/4" Mahogany (45 watt Epilog) for a guy and no matter what settings plus 30 lbs of air it flamed so bad I gave up
rather than start the shop on fire. He found some relly straight grained Oak and staining it to look like mahogany. Basswood engraves and cuts beautifully and with correct settings very little or no charred edges.
Maple have only cut 1/8" birds eye and it worked fine.