Wood, acrylic, plastics, leather, glass engraving
LS · HP — Boss’s CO₂ platforms
Is a standard LS enough, or do you need HP?
CO₂ is the non-metal workhorse — its 10.6 µm beam is absorbed well by wood, acrylic, leather, paper and fabric. For most buyers the real fork is LS versus HP. An LS is the standard platform and you choose it by bed size and power for the non-metals you run. An HP steps up the power and is the CO₂ that can also cut thin sheet metal — up to roughly 18 gauge stainless with the right setup. If metal is more than an occasional thin part, the honest answer is not a CO₂ at all.
Where an LS genuinely stops
An LS does not run out of ability on non-metals — it runs out of throughput and headroom. The three walls people hit, in the order they hit them:
| The wall | What it feels like | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Bed size | Cutting sheet down before it reaches the machine; tiling large jobs | A larger LS — size to the stock you buy, not the part you cut |
| Power | Multiple passes on thicker acrylic or hardwood; slow vector cuts | More watts, or step to HP |
| Duty cycle | Fine for a job, tiring across a full production shift | HP — built for sustained runs, not just capability |
The distinction worth getting right
Can it do the job and can it do the job all day, every day are different questions, and only the second one shows up as a problem after you own the machine. If you are moving from hobby or occasional work into steady production, say so below — it is the single most useful thing you can tell us, and it usually matters more than any spec.
What HP adds — and the metal question, answered plainly
HP is the high-power CO₂ platform. Beyond more watts and more sustained-run headroom, it is the CO₂ that brings thin sheet metal into range — up to about 18 gauge stainless with the right configuration.
That figure is worth reading carefully, because it is where most cross-shopping goes wrong. Eighteen gauge is roughly 1.2 mm. It is real capability and genuinely useful for thin brackets, plates and trim — and it is not sheet-metal fabrication. A fiber cutter’s entry classes work in fractions of an inch, an order of magnitude beyond this. If your metal work is anything more than thin and occasional, you want a fiber cutter, and we would rather tell you that now than sell you a CO₂ that disappoints you in month three.
If you genuinely need both
Shops that run non-metal and metal do not always need two machines. There are platforms that pair a fiber source with a CO₂ tube on one bed. It is a real option worth asking about — mention both material families below and a specialist will lay out the trade-offs against buying two dedicated machines.
Glass and ceramic: engraving yes, cutting no
This one catches people, so it is worth stating directly. A CO₂ laser engraves glass well — frosted marks, logos, surface detail. It does not through-cut glass. Do not buy a CO₂ expecting to cut glass shapes; that is not a settings problem to be solved later.
For fine or precise glass and ceramic marking, the right tool is a UV laser, whose short wavelength works cold and leaves minimal heat-affected zone on brittle and sensitive materials. If glass or ceramic detail is the actual job, see marking & engraving instead.
Before you fill this in
LS & HP seriesThe two things that decide LS versus HP are your largest stock size and how many hours a week the machine will actually run. Materials and thickness matter too, but those two settle it fastest.
Because you are on the CO₂ Cutting & Engraving page, we already filled these in:
- ProcessCutting
- MaterialNon-metal (wood / acrylic / plastics)
Wrong guess? Clear it with × — none of this is locked in.
Frequently asked
Choosing a CO₂ laserQCan a CO₂ laser cut metal?
A standard CO₂ is built for non-metals. The HP platform can cut thin sheet metal — roughly up to 18 gauge stainless with the right setup. Past thin sheet, metal cutting means a fiber laser.
QHow do I know if I should size up to HP?
Three tells: you are tiling jobs because the bed is too small, you are running multiple passes on your usual thickness, or the machine is running most of the working day. The first is a size question, the second and third are HP questions.
QShould I look at an EVO instead?
Possibly — the EVO is the entry desktop CO₂, and for small parts and light work it is genuinely enough. It is a different decision from LS-versus-HP, which is why it has its own page.
QWhat thickness of acrylic or wood can it cut?
That depends on power and on the finish you need — a clean, polished-looking edge is a different limit from simply getting through the material. Tell us the thickest stock you run and the edge quality you need, and a specialist will give you a straight answer rather than a maximum you cannot use in production.
Not what you were after?
Different material, different machine.
Go back up a level and re-pick, and nothing here will be preselected for you.