# Glossary

> Every machine, material and term from the basics pages, in one place. Each entry has its own link you can share.

## Laser Cutting & Engraving

### Types of laser machines

- **CO2 glass tube laser**: A sealed glass CO2 tube is a common source in desktop and workshop laser cutters. Suitable machines can cut wood and acrylic. Tube life depends on the model, cooling and operating conditions; follow the manufacturer's maintenance guidance.
- **CO2 RF laser**: An RF-excited CO2 source is common in professional engraving systems. Pulse control, cooling, service life and repair options vary by model. Compare the manufacturer's specifications for the materials and detail you need.
- **Diode laser**: Most affordable entry point. Works well on wood, leather, cardboard, and dark acrylic. Struggles with transparent or light-coloured acrylic. Popular machines: xTool D1, xTool S1, Sculpfun S30, Atomstack A20, ORTUR Laser Master.
- **Diode-pumped solid state (DPSS)**: A laser where a diode pumps a solid gain medium (e.g. Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4). Produces green (532nm) or UV (355nm) light. Very fine spot size and good beam quality. Found in specialty desktop engravers and industrial systems.
- **Fiber laser**: Amplifies light through a doped optical fiber. Excellent for marking and deep engraving on metal, anodized aluminium, stainless steel and coated surfaces. It marks some plastics but does not cut wood or acrylic. Popular desktop machines: the xTool F1 and the many galvo markers built on Raycus or JPT sources.
- **Galvo laser**: Uses motorised mirrors to steer the beam instead of a moving gantry. Extremely fast ideal for rapid engraving, deep marking, and high-volume production. Used in fiber, CO2 RF, and UV systems. The xTool F1 uses a galvo head.
- **MOPA fiber laser**: A fiber laser with a Master Oscillator Power Amplifier design. Allows precise control over pulse width and frequency, enabling colour marking on stainless steel and finer contrast on anodized aluminium without the surface damage of standard fiber lasers.
- **UV laser**: A UV laser commonly uses a 355 nm beam for fine marking on suitable glass, plastics and other materials. Results depend on the material and settings; the term cold marking does not mean the process produces no heat or fumes.

### Common materials

- **Birch plywood (3 mm, 1/8 in)**: The most popular laser material. Cuts cleanly, sands well, and takes stain or paint. Ideal for signs, keychains, and ornaments.
- **Cardstock and paper**: Cuts crisp, intricate shapes. Great for stencils, invitations, and layered art.
- **Cast acrylic**: Cast acrylic is useful for a frosted engraving. Both cast and extruded acrylic can be cut with a suitable CO2 laser; extruded acrylic can produce a polished edge. Test the actual sheet. A visible-blue diode generally cannot cut clear acrylic.
- **Fabric**: CO2 lasers cut cotton, felt, denim, and synthetic fabrics cleanly and without fraying.
- **Leather**: Vegetable-tanned leather cuts and engraves beautifully. Avoid chrome-tanned leather as it releases harmful fumes.
- **MDF**: Smooth and consistent, great for engraving. Can warp with humidity. Good for painted projects and stencils.

### Key terms

- **Air assist**: A stream of air blown at the cut point to remove smoke, reduce char, and prevent flare-ups.
- **Cut, score and engrave**: Cut goes all the way through the sheet. Score follows a line on the surface without cutting through. Engrave fills an area or a picture, line by line.
- **DPI / LPI**: Dots or lines per inch for engraving. Higher values produce more detail but take longer.
- **Kerf**: The width of material removed by the laser beam. Typically 0.1–0.3mm. Important when designing parts that need to fit together.
- **Passes**: Running the laser over the same path more than once to cut thicker materials or achieve deeper engraves.
- **Power and speed**: The two main cutting parameters. Higher power or lower speed means deeper cuts. Always run test cuts on new materials.
- **Registration marks**: Small targets printed beside the artwork in print and cut. The laser or cutter finds them to line the cut up with the print.
- **SVG**: A drawing made of lines and shapes instead of pixels, saved at a real size. Laser software turns each colour in an SVG into a layer you can cut, score or engrave.
- **Vector and raster**: Vector paths are cut or scored as lines. Raster fills are engraved line by line like a printer. Most jobs use both.

## Vinyl Cutting

### Types of vinyl cutters

- **Brother ScanNCut**: Has a built-in scanner so you can scan a drawing and cut it directly. Good for quilters and crafters who work from hand-drawn patterns.
- **Cricut (Maker / Explore / Joy)**: The most popular consumer brand. Works through Cricut Design Space software. The Maker series can cut over 300 materials including thick cardstock, leather, and balsa wood. The Joy is a compact version for smaller projects.
- **Professional sign cutters**: Machines from Roland, Graphtec, and USCutter are used in sign shops for large-format decals, vehicle wraps, and high-volume production. Much wider cutting widths (24"–60") and higher precision.
- **Silhouette (Cameo / Portrait)**: Leading competitor to Cricut. Uses Silhouette Studio software which offers more design control and accepts SVG files directly. The Cameo 5 has a 12" wide cutting area; the Portrait is a smaller version.

### Vinyl and other materials

- **Adhesive vinyl**: Permanent or removable adhesive on the back. Used for decals, tumblers, signs, and wall art. Oracal 651 (permanent) and 631 (removable) are the most popular brands.
- **Cardstock and paper**: Vinyl cutters cut cardstock and paper with precision. Great for intricate card making, gift toppers, and layered paper art.
- **Faux leather and felt**: Many machines can cut thin faux leather and felt for earrings, patches, and accessories. Requires a deep-cut blade or strong machine like the Cricut Maker.
- **Heat transfer vinyl (HTV)**: Applied to fabric using a heat press or household iron. Used for t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, and hats. Smooth HTV is easiest for beginners; glitter, holographic, and puff are popular specialty types.
- **Iron-on and Everyday Iron-On**: Cricut's version of HTV. Works on cotton, polyester blends, and canvas with a home iron or EasyPress.
- **Printable vinyl**: Print your design on an inkjet printer then cut around it with the vinyl cutter. Great for stickers and labels with photographic or full-colour designs.

### Key terms

- **Blade depth and pressure**: The two main settings. Blade depth controls how far the blade tip extends; pressure controls how hard it presses. Too deep and you cut through the backing; too shallow and the cut is incomplete.
- **Die cut**: Cutting all the way through the material and backing. Used for stickers, shapes, and patches that are fully separated from the sheet.
- **Kiss cut**: Cutting through the vinyl but not the backing sheet. The standard method for adhesive vinyl and stickers.
- **Mirroring**: HTV designs must be mirrored before cutting because the vinyl is applied face-down. Most software does this automatically when HTV material is selected.
- **Print Then Cut**: The Cricut way of making stickers: Design Space prints the picture with a black frame on your home printer, and the Cricut reads the frame to cut around it. Silhouette calls it Print and Cut.
- **Transfer tape**: A low-tack adhesive tape used to lift adhesive vinyl off its backing sheet and apply it to the final surface in one piece.
- **Weeding**: Removing the excess vinyl around your cut design, leaving only the parts you want. A weeding hook or dental pick makes this easier.

## CNC Machining

### Common materials

- **Aluminium**: Machinable on rigid desktop mills with appropriate feeds, speeds, and cooling. Not suitable for entry-level routers.
- **Foam and insulation board**: Fast to cut, great for molds, props, and packaging inserts.
- **HDPE and acrylic**: Plastics machine well with the right bit and feed rate. Often used for jigs, fixtures, and functional parts.
- **MDF**: MDF has a uniform surface useful for painted signs and jigs. Machining produces fine dust. Use effective dust extraction and follow the material and machine guidance for respiratory protection.
- **Plywood (6 to 18 mm)**: The most widely used CNC material. Birch and Baltic birch cut cleanly with a sharp bit. Custom joint designs rely on knowing your exact thickness.
- **Solid wood**: Pine, oak, maple, and walnut are all common. Grain direction affects cut quality and tearout.

### Key terms

- **Climb and conventional milling**: Two directions the bit can travel along a cut, with or against its spin. Climb milling often leaves a cleaner edge in wood; conventional milling is gentler on a light machine. Try both on a scrap and use the one that cuts cleaner on your router.
- **Feed rate**: How fast the machine moves horizontally through material, usually in mm/min or in/min.
- **G-Code**: The low-level language that tells the machine exactly where to move and how fast. Generated by CAM software from your design.
- **Pocket**: A toolpath that clears all the material inside an outline down to one depth. A carved map is a stack of pockets, one per step.
- **Step-down (depth of cut)**: How deep the bit cuts on each pass. For wood, about half to one times the bit diameter.
- **Tabs**: Small bridges left uncut to hold the workpiece in place until machining is complete.
- **Toolpath**: The programmed route the cutter follows. Includes cut depth, direction, and step-down per pass.
- **V-carve**: Carving with a V-shaped bit that goes deeper where a shape is wider, so lettering and coastlines get sharp corners and fine points.

## 3D Printing

### Common materials

- **ABS**: ABS is used for tough, heat-resistant parts. It is prone to warping and generally needs an enclosed printer with suitable ventilation. Follow the printer and filament instructions.
- **ASA**: UV and weather resistant alternative to ABS. Better for outdoor use. Requires similar print conditions to ABS.
- **PETG**: Stronger and more heat resistant than PLA. Slightly harder to tune but excellent for functional parts. Good layer adhesion and low warping.
- **PLA**: PLA is a common starting material for decorative FDM prints. It is relatively easy to print but can soften in hot environments, such as a parked car. Check the filament maker's temperature guidance.
- **Resin**: Ultra-fine detail. Standard, ABS-like, and flexible variants available. Requires UV curing and safe handling, wear gloves.
- **TPU**: Flexible filament for phone cases, gaskets, and grips. Prints slowly and requires a direct-drive extruder for best results.

### Key terms

- **Bed adhesion**: How well the first layer sticks to the build plate. Use the cleaning method, plate temperature and any adhesive recommended for that plate and filament. Watch the first layer for gaps or lifting.
- **Filament change**: A pause at a chosen layer so you can swap the filament for another colour. It lets a printer with one nozzle and no AMS print a name in a second colour on a backing.
- **Infill**: The internal structure of an FDM print. Density and pattern affect material use, print time and strength, together with wall count, layer bonding and orientation. Use a suitable profile and test parts that must carry a load.
- **Layer height**: Thickness of each printed layer. Thinner layers (0.1mm) give more detail; thicker layers (0.3mm) print faster. 0.2mm is the standard default.
- **Manifold or watertight**: A closed mesh with no holes or loose edges, so the slicer can tell inside from outside. If the slicer warns about the mesh, use its repair option and check the sliced layers.
- **Slicing**: Converting a 3D model (STL or 3MF) into printer instructions (G-code). Done in slicer software like Bambu Studio or PrusaSlicer.
- **STL and 3MF**: The two model files a slicer opens. An STL is one shape in one colour, with no units. A 3MF can hold several parts, each with its own colour, and keeps the size.
- **Supports**: Temporary structures printed to hold up overhanging sections. Removed after printing. Good slicer settings minimise the need for them.

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Read online: https://www.mylasertools.com/learn/glossary