Precise Wood Cutting

I ran a set of 10 block cuts at 20% power and 15 mm per second speed on the 4 inch laser, with block dimensions set to the 1/1000 inch.  The two small stocks did not cut all the way through on one corner.  I attribute this to either a local warping in the board or an anomaly in the wood grain or density of the wood.  With the exception of the block of dimension at 1.135 inches by 1.40 inches, 1.133 inches by 1.40 inches,, and 1.373 by 1.15 inches all of the openings accommodated the nominal 1.40 inch by 1.15 inch Plexiglas block with little to no resistance.  The test stock was able to push all the way through.  The variations in length across a series of blocks cut into the wood were in intervals of 2/1000 inch.

Use painters tape wrapped around your finger to lift cutout blocks from the board without lifting or moving the board, or having the block fall through to the debris catch pan.

The conclusion is that the 4 inch a laser cannot be trusted to precisely differentiate cut lines at precisions at 2/1000  inch.  However based on the prior tests earlier in January, the 4 inch laser certainly can be trusted to cut lines as good as one-100th of an inch. These findings appear to be true in both the X and while Y directions of the laser chamber.  The cut-off mark between true precision and lack of precision for the 4 inch laser under these operating conditions is somewhere between 9/1000th and 3/1000th of an inch. See the photos below and also this wood cut album for more examples with captions.

incomplete cuts due to wood anomalies

opening is too small