Ask what a laser can cut and you get a list. Ask what a laser can do to a material and you get a much more useful answer, because the same beam that slices through 3mm plywood only frosts the surface of a wine glass.
Laser cuttable materials fall into three groups: the ones a laser cuts clean through, the ones it can only mark or etch, and the short list it must never touch at all. That last group is worth learning first, because those failures are toxic rather than merely ugly.
What follows is the full working list of materials to laser cut and engrave, one material per section, with the laser type each one needs and the behaviour to expect.
It is brand-neutral in the sense that the physics does not change. Two 40W CO2 machines are still not interchangeable: optics, spot size, the motion system and the configuration all move the result.
Key Takeaways
- Organic materials — wood, paper, card, leather, cork, textiles — cut and engrave on diode, CO2 and ultraviolet machines, because they absorb the beam rather than melting. Fiber is the odd one out.
- On the desktop machines in this guide, metal, glass, stone and ceramic are surface work rather than cutting: annealed, frosted or ablated. That is a different job, not a weaker version of cutting. A community record does occasionally carry a Cut label on one of these — a stone entry does in our own data — but a label records what somebody submitted, not a confirmed cut through the piece.
- Wavelength decides the material list more than wattage. A blue diode passes straight through clear acrylic and reflects off bare metal; CO2 needs a coating or a marking spray to leave anything on bare metal; and across 171 wood-category records in our sample, none used a fiber head.
- PVC, polycarbonate, PTFE, polystyrene foam, HDPE, fibreglass and galvanized metal are the do-not-laser and fire-risk group, and the problem there is not a bad setting. ABS sits in a fourth category, “depends on the job”: purpose-made two-tone engraving laminate is an engrave-only material, while unknown ABS stock is not worth running.
What Makes a Material Laserable
A laser does not slice. It delivers enough energy into a tiny spot to remove material by vaporising, burning or chemically changing it. Whether that works depends on three properties, and none of them is hardness.
Absorption at the laser's wavelength
The material has to absorb the light. Clear acrylic absorbs 10.6 micron infrared from a CO2 tube almost perfectly, but a 455nm blue diode beam passes straight through it, which is why clear sheet is a diode owner's standing frustration.
Bare metal reflects most of both, which is why 1064nm from a fiber or infrared source is the usual answer for it. Usual, not exclusive: xTool lists stainless steel among the S1 diode’s engravable materials, so check what your own model claims. That single fact explains most of the "why won't my machine cut this" questions.
What happens at the melting point
Some materials go from solid to vapour and leave a crisp edge. Others melt first, and the melt flows back into the cut and re-solidifies as a bead. Acrylic vaporises, which is why its cut edge comes out polished; HDPE melts, which is why its cut edge comes out rough and re-hardened rather than clean.
What comes off it as gas
Every cut releases something. Wood gives smoke, acrylic gives a sweetish vapour, leather gives an unpleasant but manageable smell. Chlorinated plastics give hydrogen chloride, and that is the line between a material you extract and a material you refuse.
If the basics of the process are new to you, our introduction to laser cutting covers the mechanics before the material list.
Every laser cut material at a glance
The quick reference before the detail. "Surface only" in this table means the recorded settings change the top layer. None of them is a verified cut through the material, so adding passes is not a cutting method here.
| Material | Cut through | Engrave / mark | Best laser | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plywood, basswood, birch | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | The default starting material |
| Solid hardwood | Up to a few mm | Yes | CO2 | Grain and resin change the result |
| MDF | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | Heavy smoke; glue content varies |
| Bamboo | Thin sheet only | Yes | CO2 or diode | Dense and silica-rich; engraves crisply |
| Paper, card, cardboard | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | Very low power; scorching is the risk |
| Leather (veg-tan) | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | Low power, high speed, good extraction |
| Cork | Yes | Yes | CO2 | Crumbly edge; keep passes low |
| Textiles, felt, denim | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | Synthetics seal their own edge |
| Cast acrylic (PMMA) | Yes | Yes | CO2 | Polished edge; clear sheet needs CO2 |
| Delrin / POM | Yes | Yes | CO2 | Clean mechanical parts; strong fumes |
| Engraving plastic laminate | Yes | Yes | CO2 or diode | Two-colour result, no paint needed |
| Laser rubber | Yes | Deep relief | CO2 | Made for stamps; smells strongly |
| Silicone | Thin sheet | Yes | CO2 or fiber | Forgiving; common for wearables |
| PET and PP film | Yes | Yes | CO2 | Confirm the polymer is not PVC |
| EVA and craft foam | Yes | Light only | CO2 | Fire risk; never leave unattended |
| Anodized or coated metal | No | Yes | Diode, fiber, IR or UV | The beam removes the coating layer |
| Bare steel, brass, titanium | No | Yes | Fiber or MOPA | Annealing and colour marking |
| Glass | No | Surface only | CO2, fiber or UV | Frosts the surface; can crack |
| Stone and slate | No | Surface only | CO2, diode or fiber | High contrast with little effort |
| Ceramic and tile | No | Surface only | CO2 or UV | Glaze reacts; unglazed needs coating |
Materials You Should Not Laser
Everything after this section is a question of settings. This section is not, but it is not one flat rule either.
Some materials are a hard no on any desktop machine. Others are a fire risk, and a few are fine for one operation and a bad idea for another. Those are three different problems, so they are listed separately below.
One rule covers all of them: if you cannot confirm what a sheet is made of, do not put it in the machine.
| Material | Category | What goes wrong | What to check first |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVC and PVC-backed vinyl or faux leather | Do not laser | Chlorine in the polymer becomes hydrogen chloride gas, which is hazardous to breathe and corrodes optics and electronics | Ask the supplier for the polymer type. Unlabelled “plastic sheet” and cheap faux leather are the usual traps |
| Polycarbonate (Lexan, Makrolon, PC) | Do not laser | Yellows, chars and can ignite instead of cutting. It looks identical to acrylic on the shelf | The sheet marking. PC and PMMA are often stocked side by side |
| PTFE and other fluoropolymers | Do not laser | Decomposition products are documented as hazardous on the supplier safety data sheet | The SDS, before anything else |
| Galvanized and zinc-coated metal | Do not laser | The coating vaporises well below the temperature the metal needs | Whether the metal is coated at all. Bare or stainless is a different job |
| Polystyrene and polypropylene foam | Fire risk | Catch light almost immediately and keep burning after the beam moves on | Nothing makes these safe on a desktop machine |
| HDPE and similar polyolefins | Fire risk | Melts into a pool that can keep burning rather than parting cleanly | Thin film behaves worse than sheet, not better |
| Fibreglass and coated carbon fibre | Not recommended | Resin fumes plus abrasive dust that gets into rails and optics | Whether a mechanical cut is an option instead |
| ABS | Depends on the job | It melts and smears rather than vaporising, and its fumes need extraction. Purpose-made two-tone engraving laminate is the exception, and it is an engraving material rather than a cutting one | Whether the sheet is a laser engraving laminate or unknown ABS stock, and what the SDS says |
The ABS row is the one that causes arguments, so it is worth being precise. xTool’s own catalogue lists nine two-tone engraving sheets under ABS, and the Materials Lab carries community records for engraving them. That is a specific laminate, engraved, with extraction.
It is not a licence to cut arbitrary ABS stock, and this guide does not recommend doing so.
On the chemistry: we name a decomposition product only where it is the reason the rule exists, as with PVC. For anything else, the supplier’s safety data sheet is the source to trust, not a material name. Our safe material list and the breakdown of what different materials give off cover the general picture.
Wood for Laser Cutting and Engraving
Wood is the biggest laser material family by a wide margin, and the most forgiving. It absorbs the beam readily, vaporises instead of melting, and needs no coating to take a legible engrave.
Plywood, basswood and birch
Laser plywood is the default starting material: flat, cheap, cuts at 3mm on most diode and CO2 machines.
Grade matters more than species — void-free laser-grade ply cuts predictably, while construction ply hides glue pockets that stall the beam and leave a bridge you snap by hand. A tested wood and board list takes the guesswork out of it: 40+ species and grades with the recorded speed, power and pass values for each.
Our plywood guide covers the grades, and the best woods for laser cutting compares species side by side.
Solid hardwood
Walnut, cherry, maple and oak all engrave beautifully, with darker contrast on lighter species. Cutting is another matter: past a few millimetres you are fighting grain density and resin pockets that char before they part.
MDF
MDF is wood fibre bound with resin, and it cuts more predictably than natural timber because there is no grain to fight. The trade-off is smoke — noticeably more than plywood, plus a heavier residue on the lens. The binder varies between suppliers, so a sheet that cut cleanly last month can behave differently.
Bamboo
Bamboo is technically a grass and behaves like one: dense, silica-rich, and it engraves with unusually sharp edges. That is why it dominates the pen, coaster and cutting-board market. Cutting is limited to thin sheet.
Acrylic and Plastic for Laser Cutting and Engraving
Plastics split sharply. Some are the best-behaved laser materials in existence and a few are the most dangerous, and the polymer name decides which — not the thickness, and rarely the label on the shelf.
Cast acrylic (PMMA)
Cast acrylic is the showpiece material. A CO2 laser vaporises it cleanly and the cut edge comes out flame-polished and transparent with no finishing at all. Recorded settings for 30+ acrylic finishes — cast, extruded, frosted, mirror and two-tone — are collected on the acrylic materials page.
Cast engraves to a frosted white; extruded cuts adequately but engraves greyish and dull. Plexiglass, perspex and acrylic are three trade names for the same polymer, so do not pay a premium for the word. Clear sheet is CO2 territory — a blue diode passes straight through it. Full method in how to laser cut acrylic.
Delrin, POM and engineering plastics
Delrin cuts crisply and holds a thread, which makes it the go-to for laser-cut gears, jigs and gaskets where dimensional stability matters. It releases formaldehyde as it burns, so extraction is mandatory. Nylon and PETG also cut, with more edge melt.
Engraving plastic laminate
Engraving plastic is its own category: a thin coloured cap layer bonded to a contrasting core. The laser removes the cap and the core shows through, giving a crisp two-colour result with no paint or fill. Standard stock for name badges, door signs and equipment tags.
Buy sheet that is sold for laser engraving and comes with a data sheet. Much of it is ABS-cored, including xTool’s own two-tone sheets, and that is an engrave-only material to run with extraction rather than a do-not-laser one. What belongs on the do-not-laser list is unlabelled ABS stock, where nobody can tell you what the core is.
One question resolves almost every plastic. Ask the supplier for the resin code, not the trade name. PMMA, POM, PET and PP are fine; PVC, PC and PTFE are not. ABS depends on what the sheet is: a laser engraving laminate is an engrave-only material, unknown ABS stock is not worth running. If nobody can tell you which polymer it is, treat it as PVC and put it back.
Metal for Laser Engraving and Marking
Desktop machines mark metal far more often than they cut it. Across 161 metal records in our sample only three are cuts, all of them 0.1–0.2mm brass or aluminium on an ultraviolet head.
Industrial metal cutting uses kilowatts and an assist gas, which a benchtop machine does not have. What it does is change the surface, which is why metal is an engraving material rather than cutting stock.
The distinction that matters is not the metal but whether something sits on top of it. A diode or infrared beam can strip anodising, paint or powder coat and expose bright metal underneath, which reads as a crisp high-contrast mark.
Which laser marks which metal, and the tested values per machine model, is laid out on the metal materials page.
Bare stainless, brass, aluminum and titanium are usually a fiber, MOPA or infrared job. The mark can come about in more than one way — annealing builds a controlled oxide layer, while higher fluence removes material — and MOPA can tune the oxide to produce colour. Not every diode is excluded: xTool lists stainless steel among the S1’s diode-engravable materials, so check your own model.
Marking spray is the cheap workaround: it bonds a dark layer onto bare metal that a diode can then fuse in place. Methods compared in how to engrave metal, and surface work runs as a raster engrave rather than a vector path — see raster versus vector modes.
Leather for Laser Engraving and Cutting
Vegetable-tanned leather cuts and engraves well, and the engrave darkens naturally without any coating. Chrome-tanned hide is a different question: the chromium salts are not something you want vaporised, so favour veg-tan when you have the choice.
PU leather is the easier option for beginners and behaves consistently, since it is a synthetic coating on a fabric backing. Full technique in our leather engraving guide.
Fabric for Laser Cutting and Engraving
Synthetic textiles and felt have a useful trick: the beam seals the edge as it cuts, so there is nothing to fray. For appliqué and layered textile work that alone justifies the machine.
Natural cotton and linen cut just as well but leave a raw edge, and denim scorches if you slow down. Keep speed high and let multiple light passes do the work rather than one slow one.
Paper and Cardboard for Laser Cutting
Paper is the lowest-power material on the list, and the failure mode is the opposite of everywhere else: the risk is scorching, not failing to cut.
Run high speed and minimal power, and cut in a single pass. Multi-layer paper cuts and wedding stationery are a craft in their own right, collected in laser cut paper crafts.
Vinyl and Film for Laser Cutting
PET, polypropylene and most inkjet or sublimation films cut cleanly, and self-adhesive vinyl cuts well too — provided it is not PVC vinyl, which the craft market sells under the same one-word name.
Mylar stencils, holographic film and engravable foil all live in this family. Every one of them needs the polymer confirmed before the first cut.
Glass for Laser Engraving
The laser micro-fractures the surface, producing the frosted white you see on engraved glassware. It is not removal so much as controlled damage, which is why the result looks etched rather than cut.
Glass is also the least forgiving material for thermal shock. Curved drinkware needs a rotary attachment, and a wet paper towel over the surface spreads the heat and reduces chipping. Detail in how to engrave glass.
Stone and Slate for Laser Engraving
Slate is one of the easiest high-contrast materials there is. The beam lightens the surface to a pale grey against near-black, needs no coating and no masking, and tolerates a wide setting range.
Unglazed stone and terracotta are harder work and usually need a coating or marking spray to give the beam something to react with. If slate work appeals, our slate coaster designs collect ready-made files.
Rubber and Silicone for Laser Engraving
Laser stamp rubber is engineered for exactly this job. The beam burns a deep relief and leaves the shoulders sharp enough for fine text, which is what makes a usable stamp rather than a smudge. It smells appalling and there is nothing to be done about that beyond good extraction.
Silicone engraves well and tolerates a wide setting range, which is why watch bands, phone cases and baby-product blanks show up so often in laser shops. Thin sheet will cut, but hold-down matters more than power — magnets or a pin bed beat tape here.
Cork, Foam and Ceramic for Laser Cutting and Engraving
Cork cuts easily but crumbles at the edge if you push the passes, so one confident pass beats three timid ones. It engraves to a soft mid-brown rather than a hard black, and coasters and pinboards are where it earns its place. Ready-made files are in our cork coaster collection.
EVA and craft foam cut, and laser-cut foam inserts for tool cases are a genuine niche — but foam is among the most common causes of laser fires. Never run it unattended. Polystyrene and polypropylene foam must not go in at all.
Glazed ceramic reacts with the glaze itself, so a CO2 or UV beam marks it without preparation; tile coasters and house numbers are the obvious application. Sublimation-coated ceramic is different again — there you are marking the coating, so settings follow the coating supplier rather than the substrate.
CO2, Diode, Fiber and UV: Which Laser Materials Match Which Machine
Wattage is the number on the box, but wavelength is the number that decides what you can process. Two machines at the same power can have almost no overlap in material list.
CO2 laser materials
CO2 remains the broadest choice for a mixed workshop. Every organic on the list, cast acrylic including clear sheet, Delrin, laser rubber, cork and non-PVC film all cut, and it frosts glass, slate and glazed ceramic.
The gap is bare metal: 10.6 micron light does not couple into it at desktop power, though a marking spray gives the beam something to fuse. If your work is wood, acrylic and paper, this is the wavelength you want.
Diode laser materials
Diode machines are cheaper and more compact, and they are genuinely good on wood, MDF, dark and coloured acrylic, leather, felt, card and anything anodized or powder-coated.
Clear acrylic is the blind spot settings will not solve: the blue beam passes straight through, and the fix is tinted or backed sheet rather than a number. Bare metal is the softer case — most of it reflects the beam and belongs to a fiber or infrared source, marking spray covers the rest, and xTool lists stainless steel among the S1 diode’s engravable materials, so read your own model’s spec before writing metal off.
Fiber laser materials and MOPA colour marking
Fiber and MOPA sources are metal specialists. Stainless, brass, aluminum, titanium and coated metal all mark cleanly, and MOPA can tune the oxide layer to produce colour on steel.
They are effectively useless on wood, paper and clear plastics, so a fiber machine is a second machine rather than a first one for most makers.
UV and infrared laser materials
UV at 355nm is the cold-marking option. It works on glass, ceramic, delicate plastics and coated metal with almost no heat-affected zone, which is why it handles stock that would craze or deform under a CO2 beam. Our UV laser explainer goes further into how that works.
Infrared modules at 1064nm sit between the two: metals and many plastics at modest power, and the usual choice for coated drinkware and plastic housings.
If you are choosing hardware rather than working with what you have, the CO2 versus fiber versus diode comparison is the fuller treatment.
Thickness, Sheet Sizes and Laser Cutting Supplies
Once you know a material is laserable, the format you buy it in and the settings you run it at decide the result.
Standard laser cut sheet sizes
Laser sheet stock is sold in a handful of formats. Buying to your bed size rather than trimming down wastes far less.
| Format | Imperial equivalent | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 300 × 300 mm (approx.) | 12 × 12" | Hobby machines, coasters, small signs |
| 300 × 600 mm (approx.) | 12 × 24" | The most common size for enclosed diode machines |
| 600 × 900 mm (approx.) | 24 × 36" | Large-bed CO2; usually needs trimming to fit |
| A4 / A3 sheet | 8.3 × 11.7" / 11.7 × 16.5" | Paper, card, veneer and film |
Thickness runs 1mm, 2mm, 3mm and 5mm in metric, or 1/32", 1/16", 1/8" and 3/16" in imperial. 3mm is the routine cut; 5mm needs multiple passes or a stronger source.
Stock sold as laser grade is usually flatter than general craft stock, and flatness matters more than people expect — warp is what causes a cut to fail halfway across a sheet.
The laser cutting supplies that change your results
Beyond the sheet itself, a short list of consumables and fixtures does most of the work:
- Honeycomb or pin bed — lifts the sheet off the base so the beam exits cleanly and reflections do not scorch the underside.
- Masking tape or transfer paper — keeps smoke residue off the surface on wood and acrylic; peel it after the cut.
- Magnets or hold-down clips — the fix for warped stock and for anything flexible like silicone or film.
- Air assist — blows smoke out of the cut line, which both improves edge quality and reduces flare-ups.
- Laser marking spray — the usual route for marking bare metal with a diode; it bonds a dark layer the beam can fuse.
How power, speed and passes trade off
These three are not independent settings. Each one changes the energy going into a given millimetre of material, so the same depth can be reached several ways with very different edges.
| Change | What happens | When you want it |
|---|---|---|
| Lower the speed | Roughly doubles energy per mm when halved, and usually more charring because heat has longer to spread | Deep engraves, dense hardwood |
| Raise the power | More energy without extra dwell time; often less heat spread, though past a point it simply burns | Cutting thicker stock in one go |
| Add passes | Each pass removes less and dumps less heat, which usually gives a squarer edge — test it rather than assuming | Thicker stock, where one pass would scorch the edge |
| Defocus slightly | Wider, shallower mark on most materials | Frosting glass, softening an engrave |
Kerf is real and it compounds
The beam removes a slot of material, typically 0.1 to 0.3mm wide depending on machine and material. On a single decorative cut it is irrelevant. On a finger-jointed box with twenty tabs it is the difference between a snug fit and a bag of loose parts.
Measure it rather than assuming it — a kerf offset test card gives you the real number for that material on your machine in one short cut.
Build a test grid before every unfamiliar material. A grid of small squares stepping power against speed takes ten minutes on a scrap offcut, and it accounts for your extraction, your lens and the age of your laser source — things no settings table can know.
Method in our speed and power testing guide, plus masking techniques if scorching is the real problem.
Final Thoughts
Almost anything organic cuts. Anything hard gets marked rather than cut. And a handful of plastics are simply off the table — those you identify by resin code, not by looking.
Once that is second nature, choosing a material stops being a compatibility question and becomes a design one. Whatever a guide claims, confirm it on a scrap offcut first.
Frequently Asked Questions about Laserable Materials
What materials can a laser cutter cut through?
Wood, plywood, MDF, cast acrylic, leather, paper, cardboard, cork, felt, most textiles, laser rubber, Delrin and non-PVC films all cut through on a desktop machine. Thickness depends on the machine and the material rather than on one ladder: xTool lists the S1 40W diode as cutting up to 18mm cherry wood in a single pass and the 20W as 10mm, and CO2 figures differ again. Work from your own model’s published cutting spec.
Can a laser cut metal?
Desktop machines mark metal far more often than they cut it, and that is what the records here show. It is not an absolute, though: xTool lists the S1 40W diode as cutting 0.1mm stainless steel in one pass and the 20W as 0.04mm, so very thin sheet is within spec for some models — check your own. Anything approaching sheet-metal thickness needs industrial power and an assist gas. On marking, a diode strips a coating while fiber, MOPA and infrared sources work on the metal itself.
Why can't I cut clear acrylic with my diode laser?
Because clear acrylic barely absorbs 455nm blue light — the beam passes through instead of depositing energy. A CO2 laser at 10.6 microns is absorbed almost completely, which is why it cuts the same sheet effortlessly. Dark and coloured acrylic works fine on a diode; clear does not.
Is MDF safe to laser cut?
Yes, with proper extraction. MDF is wood fibre bound with resin, and it cuts predictably, but it produces noticeably more smoke and a heavier residue than plywood. The binder varies between suppliers, so a sheet that cut cleanly last month may behave differently.
How do I know if a plastic contains PVC?
Ask the supplier for the resin identification code rather than the trade name. PVC is code 3, and it should never go near a laser. If the material is unlabelled and nobody can confirm the polymer, treat it as PVC. A copper wire flame test exists but is unreliable enough not to bet your lungs on.
What thickness can a 20W diode laser cut?
It depends on the machine, not just the wattage. xTool publishes single-pass figures for its own 20W diode — 10mm cherry wood, 8mm dark opaque acrylic, 0.04mm stainless steel — and those are manufacturer maxima in ideal conditions rather than recommended settings, so look up the spec for the model you own and test on offcuts. Clear acrylic is the one exception that is not about thickness: it does not absorb 455nm at all.
Which materials work best for laser etching?
Laser etching materials are the ones where a surface change reads clearly: slate, glass, anodized aluminum, stainless steel, coated drinkware, glazed ceramic and two-colour engraving laminate. Contrast comes from the material itself rather than any coating you add, which is why slate and anodized metal usually need no added coating — retail blanks can still be sealed or painted, so check the piece.
Does engraving use the same materials as cutting?
The engravable list is longer, because marking a surface takes far less energy than parting a sheet. Glass, stone, ceramic, anodized metal and coated blanks are engraved rather than cut on the machines here. Most cuttable materials engrave too, usually at a fraction of the power.
Stop guessing at settings
Browse the same material families with recorded power, speed and pass values per machine, then send them straight to your laser.
