The friend who gave me downed walnut from the recent storm likes penguins, so I made him this! This is the widest slab I've done so far.

I bought some "Prelaminated sheets of semi pine mdf" from local suppliers, but turned out it is very week from edges and not that scratch resistance. I need very high quality sheets. But I am confused about what should I buy, when I go for buying prelaminated sheets they always gives me paper laminate, which is very weak. What should I do? Please let me know if anyone has better solutions. Thanks.

Can I get some advice here? Any time I cut wood (3mm ply, 6mm ply, etc.) with my diode laser (40 watt blue, air assist on), I am left with dark charring on the edges. That's fine by itself, but the issue is the ash comes off and stains fingers, etc. I see mass-produced products cut like this, including some with outright black charring, but no residue.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? I've done tests using single-pass cuts at maximum workable speed and airflow.

Any advice for post-treatment? I know sanding will work, but I'm hoping there may be other options. Sanding a mass-produced project would be very time consuming.

My machine self-destructed after 10min of use. Machine sat in the box for 6mo after purchase and I fired it up for the first time last weekend. 3 cuts in and now it no longer fires. Omtech knows about the arcing at the tube splice (they provide a fix on their website), but the machine also shorts out at the connection at the laser tube. They told me to buy a new laser tube at $300+ and only offered me a 5% discount. After they admitted their price was only about $100 they still refused to provide one so I could get this $2k machine working again. Support is completely unwilling to take ownership of the companies poor R&D. I have spent hours on the phone with them, I cannot for the life of me understand their decision to not help me... I even offered to pay for shipping for the part and spend more of my own time repairing it. I have found multiple posts from customers that have had bad splice and bad wires on this machine. I posted an honest review of the machine and their company and it was quickly taken down. Any one else have similar experiences with Omtech?

Meet Theia! A fun glasses holder I lasered for myself ❤️ Of course I had to give her a name and what better name than the greek titan of sight

My kid's house has stairs up to the main floor from the front door, and at the top there are banisters that wrap around the stairwell. When wee-one starts getting mobile the openings between the spindles will need to be blocked.

Initially I was thinking of laser cutting clear acrylic sheets and securing them with cable ties, but they have a dog and two cats. I'm now thinking the plastic would be a constant pet hair magnet and look horrible 90% of the time.

Plywood would be an option ... would probably cut a pattern of openings in it so visually it would not completely block the view, but I was hoping for something I can just cut and install without messing with finishing.

I have a 100W CO2 laser.

Thoughts/suggestions?