index / materials / plywood-mdf

Plywood and MDF

also: basswood ply, birch ply

Sheet goods behave a little differently from solid boards because of the glue layers. Few maker pages split them out, so most cells here rest on xTool's lists alone.

Board

YES x2 two or more makers say yesNO x2 two or more say noMAKERS SPLIT makers contradict each other1 SOURCE one maker page only, not confirmedNO STATEMENT nothing publishedIF = yes only under a stated condition
Laser typeEngrave or markCut
Diode (blue, about 450 to 455 nm)1 SOURCE: YES1 SOURCE: YES
CO2 (10,600 nm)YES x2YES x2 +1 IF
Fiber (1064 nm)1 SOURCE: NO1 SOURCE: NO

Run plywood and mdf through the matcher to add a cut thickness.

What each maker says

Diode, engrave or mark 1 SOURCE: YES

Diode, cut 1 SOURCE: YES

CO2, engrave or mark YES x2

CO2, cut YES x2 +1 IF

Fiber, engrave or mark 1 SOURCE: NO

Fiber, cut 1 SOURCE: NO

Published one-pass cut depth

Only figures a maker prints for this material. Thicker stock may need more passes; no page read gives a multi-pass figure.

MachineTypeMax one passSources
xTool S1 40WDiode15 mmxTool, Stemfinity (retailer)
xTool P2SCO212 mmxTool
xTool S1 20WDiode10 mmxTool
xTool S1 10WDiode6 mmxTool

Notes from the pages

Fumes

Every page read treats lasering as a fume source. Match your machine's exhaust figure to an extractor on the fume and room lookup.