Materials that can be cut/engraved from the London Hack Space wiki. If you want to cut a material which is not on the allowed list you must contact the maintainers through the members email list to ask permission.

Allowed

Woods

• Laser-grade MDF (max 8mm)
• Laser-grade plywood
• Birch ply (max 9mm)
• Poplar ply (max 9mm)
• Balsa wood
• Paper (cutting only)
• Card/Cardboard (cutting only)

Plastics

• Thin Polypropylene sheet (<1mm)
• Acrylic (max 10mm)
• Foamcore (non-PVC variety)
• Correx (Genuine non PVC)
• Depron foam (Fire risk, must be closely monitored)
• EVA Foam (if real)
• Delrin (max 8mm)

Textiles

• Cloth/felt/hemp/cotton (Not plastic-impregnated fabric)
• Polar Fleece

For engraving only

• Stone (Engrave only)
• Ceramic tile (Engrave only)
• Non-resinous wood IE hardwood (Engrave only)
• Glass (Engrave only)
• Anodised Aluminium (Engrave only)

Materials that should not be used

• Cork (fire risk)
• Wood which isn't explicitly laser-grade (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Food (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Body parts
• Plastics containing PVC (laser contamination, emissions)
• Plastics containing ABS (laser contamination, fire risk, cyanide emission)
• Fibreglass (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Circuit boards (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Polycarbonate (laser contamination, fire risk)
• All metal (except engraving anodized aluminium)
• Polystyrene (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Polypropylene (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• HDPE (high-density polyethylene or polyethylene) (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Carbon fibre (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Shuttering ply (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Latex (laser contamination, fire risk, emissions)
• Leather, all. (laser contamination)