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Material settings reference
Per-material numbers
The parameters that matter are power, speed, focus position, frequency, passes, and — on metal — assist gas and pressure. Power and speed together set how much energy reaches each point of the cut; focus sets how concentrated it is; frequency sets how it’s distributed in time; assist gas clears molten material and shapes the edge. They interact, so changing one changes the result of the others. The order of operations that saves the most time: check focus, then adjust speed, then change power. Power is the setting most likely to add heat damage, and turning it up to compensate for a dirty lens or bad focus hides the actual problem while making it worse.
1 · Power — how much energy the beam carries.
Usually set as a percentage of the machine’s rated wattage. More power means more energy into the material per unit time: deeper cuts, faster progress, and more heat.
What people miss is that power is not free. Above what a material needs, extra power stops improving the cut and starts degrading it — charring wood, melting acrylic edges into a rounded lip, widening the kerf, growing the heat-affected zone. “It cut through” and “it cut well” are different tests.
Power is usually the last thing to raise
If a cut isn’t going through, the likeliest causes are focus, dirty optics, or speed — in that order — long before “not enough watts.” Raising power to compensate for a dirty lens deposits more energy into the contamination, which heats the lens further and can damage it permanently.
2 · Speed — how long the beam dwells.
How fast the head travels along the cut path. Slower means each point of material is exposed longer, so more total energy goes in.
Power and speed both change total energy, but not in the same way, and this is the distinction worth internalizing:
| Move | What changes | Side effect |
|---|---|---|
| Halve the speed | Roughly doubles exposure time at each point | Heat has longer to conduct sideways — wider heat-affected zone, more charring |
| Double the power | Roughly doubles intensity at the spot | More aggressive removal, but the process stays brief |
| More passes at lower settings | Splits the work into stages with cooling between | Cleaner on heat-sensitive material; slower overall; alignment must hold |
Practical consequence: for heat-sensitive materials, faster with less power usually beats slower with more. You’re trying to remove material before heat has time to spread.
3 · Focus — the one that quietly ruins everything.
Focus position sets where the beam’s waist — its narrowest, most concentrated point — sits relative to the material. Get it wrong and the material is being worked by a beam that’s already spreading, so your effective spot is bigger and your power density is lower, sometimes dramatically.
Working guidance:
- Engraving and thin material — focus on the surface. That’s where the work happens.
- Thicker cutting — focus into the material, so the beam is effective through more of its depth rather than only at the top.
- Anything unfamiliar — run a focus test on scrap before running the job. It costs minutes and saves material.
Focus is also why the same settings behave differently on a warped or uneven sheet: the material moved, so the focus moved with it. Why spot size dominates results →
4 · Frequency — how the energy is distributed in time.
On pulsed and engraving work, frequency (pulses per second, in kHz or Hz) controls how the same average energy is spread across time.
| Higher frequency | Lower frequency | |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse overlap | More overlap — pulses blend into a continuous effect | Less overlap — distinct, harder-hitting pulses |
| Energy per pulse | Lower (at fixed average power) | Higher |
| Result | Smoother edges, more thermal character, lighter marks | More aggressive removal, deeper marks, more visible pulse texture |
| Suits | Acrylic edges, fine marking, coated surfaces | Deep engraving, thick or dense material |
On acrylic specifically, frequency is one of the main levers between a flame-polished edge and a frosted one. How pulse rate and energy trade off →
5 · Assist gas — the parameter that isn’t about the beam.
On metal, assist gas is not an accessory; it’s part of the cutting mechanism. It blows molten material out of the kerf and determines what chemistry happens at the cut face.
| Gas | What it does | Edge you get |
|---|---|---|
| Oxygen (O₂) | Reacts with the metal — the reaction itself adds energy | Faster on mild steel; leaves an oxidized edge that may need cleaning before finishing |
| Nitrogen (N₂) | Inert — blows melt clear without reacting | Bright, clean, weld-ready edge on stainless and aluminum; slower and uses more gas |
| Compressed air | Economical middle ground | Good on thinner material and non-metals; quality between the two |
Pressure matters as much as gas choice — too little leaves dross clinging to the underside, too much can chill the cut or disturb it. On non-metals, air assist mostly serves to keep smoke and debris away from the lens and suppress flare-up, which is a fire-safety function as much as a quality one. The oxygen-vs-nitrogen decision in full →
6 · Reading a bad cut backwards.
Most of the value of understanding parameters is diagnostic — the cut tells you which dial is wrong:
| What you see | Most likely cause | Try first |
|---|---|---|
| Not cutting through | Focus off, dirty optics, or too fast | Check focus and clean optics; then slow down. Power last. |
| Charred, scorched edges | Too much energy dwelling too long | More speed, less power; check air assist |
| Melted, rounded edges (plastics) | Excess heat | Faster, lower power, consider more passes |
| Wide kerf, tapered edge | Focus wrong, or spot larger than expected | Re-set focus; check lens condition |
| Dross on the underside (metal) | Assist gas pressure or speed mismatch | Adjust gas pressure; then speed |
| Inconsistent across the bed | Alignment or an uneven/warped sheet | Check alignment and material flatness |
| Was fine, now isn’t | Contaminated optics — the most common cause of gradual decline | Clean and inspect optics before changing any setting |
7 · How to actually find your settings.
Nobody derives settings from first principles. The working method is a test grid, and it’s worth doing properly once per new material:
- Start from a known reference for that material and thickness — never from zero.
- Confirm the machine is right first — optics clean, alignment good, focus set. Testing on a dirty lens characterizes the dirt, not the material.
- Vary one parameter at a time across a grid on scrap of the same stock. Speed first, since it’s the safest to move.
- Judge the whole edge, not just whether it separated — colour, taper, dross, heat marks.
- Back off from the limit. Settings that just cut leave no margin for material variation. Take a step back toward safety.
- Write it down. A shop log of proven settings by material and thickness is worth more than any published chart.
Start from real numbers, not a blank grid
Boss publishes cut-and-engrave settings by material for its CO2 machines — power and speed for acrylic, woods, leather, glass, and more. That’s the right place to begin a test grid. CO2 laser settings by material
Two settings are safety settings, not quality settings
Air assist and exhaust are not optional. Air assist suppresses flame at the cut and keeps combustion products off the lens; extraction removes smoke and fumes. Running a laser on organics without both is how a scorch becomes a fire, and how a lens becomes scrap. And regardless of any setting: never cut PVC or vinyl — there’s no parameter combination that makes hydrogen chloride safe.
8 · FAQs
Frequently asked
The Parameters You Actually SetQWhat are the main laser cutting parameters?
Power, speed, focus position, frequency, number of passes, and — on metal — assist gas type and pressure. Power and speed set how much energy arrives, focus sets how concentrated it is, frequency sets how it’s distributed in time, and assist gas clears the kerf and shapes the edge.
QWhich setting should I change first?
Focus, then speed, then power. A wrong focus makes every other setting behave unpredictably, and speed adds energy without adding intensity. Power last — it’s the most likely to add heat damage, and raising it to cover a dirty lens or bad focus hides the real cause.
QWhat’s the difference between power and speed?
Power is how much energy the beam carries; speed is how long any point is exposed to it. Halving speed roughly doubles exposure and lets heat spread sideways; doubling power raises intensity while the process stays brief. For heat-sensitive work, faster and lower usually beats slower and higher.
QWhy is my laser not cutting through?
Usually focus set wrong, dirty optics, or moving too fast — in that order. Then material thicker or denser than assumed, or assist-gas pressure wrong. Check optics and focus before adding power.
QHow do I find settings for a new material?
Start from a published reference for that material and thickness, confirm the machine is clean, aligned, and focused, then run a test grid on scrap varying one parameter at a time. Back off from the absolute limit, and log what worked.
9 · Related in this series.
Part of Laser Fundamentals:
- Beam quality and M² — why spot size sets your ceiling
- Pulsed lasers — frequency and pulse energy
- Continuous-wave lasers — why cutting runs continuous
- Melt-and-blow cutting — assist gas at the cut face
- Laser cutting, start to finish — the whole process
Keep exploring
One idea leads to the next.
The fundamentals make every later decision easier. Follow the rest of the series, or talk it through with someone who runs these systems.