I know I'm not the first person to make coasters here. There are tons of them. What I personally felt was missing when I looked through them was a stylish, modern approach. I gave it a try. The pattern isn't my idea. I saw it for a second on Instagram, I think it was about Japanese drinks. I recreated the pattern in InDesign, then rendered it in Photoshop, transferred it to the xTool program, and vectorized it there. Voilà! I actually wanted to make it with slightly thicker and harder wood, but that would take forever with my 10W laser. Maybe later. Here's the current version with 3mm plywood (poplar). Have fun recreating it!
It's not complicated at all. There are just two important things to remember: First, the outline must be cut last, so cut the pattern first. Second, the cutting parameters change depending on the thickness of the wood. With my 10W laser, I used between 80 and 100% power and a speed of between 4 and 5. Sometimes the tiny pieces don't fall out on their own, so you can use a scalpel and a small screwdriver to help them along.