Laser cutting and etching wood leaves a very organic finish and is quite popular with artists, arts and craft, prototypes, and model making. 

We can cut and etch up to an area of 600mm x 300mm, with the convenience of one setup file. If you will be supplying us the file, please see our Templates + FAQ page for more information.

For general plywood, we use and recommend 3.2mm Fijian Cedar Ply, as we find it cuts well, and has the best quality face.  3.6mm Lauan interior grade ply can also be used, however we no longer keep this in stock.

Here are some other woods which can also be cut.

• 1mm birch ply - cuts very clean
• MDF - 3mm, 6mm
• Laminex and Formica laminates
• Balsa wood - up to around 6mm thick - depending on intricacy
• There are a huge variety of 0.8mm veneers available at Mister Ply & Wood which can be laser cut

Preferably, in native Adobe Illustrator CS4 or below format. Set up your document in RGB colour mode, and set your cut lines as R=255 G=0 B=0. To preview your artwork, and to ensure there are no unwanted cut lines, you can switch to "outline preview" mode. On a PC, the shortcut key is Ctrl+Y - you can also access it by going to View -> Outline.

We can cut up to 600mm x 300mm in-house. If your project includes work which requires larger than this, we can outsource to one of our suppliers.

This all depends on the nature of your job, however we are able to give you an accurate turn around time when supplied with an artwork of the job, as well as material (thickness and specs) and quantity. We have found that in general, we are able to turn around most jobs within approximately 3 to 5 working days.

For certain types of material, this is possible. Before proceeding with the job however, you must approve a spot test on an offcut which you supply to us. As a result, keep in mind turn around time will be increased by 2-3 days. Some woods are not laserable, not only because of their appearance when lasered, but because they emit toxic fumes which damage the environment, people and machinery. The most common type of problem we encounter with our setup, is with plywoods which use A-Bond adhesive. These are typically marine and exterior plywoods.

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For any quotes or enquiries, please email us with your job details.