Gravotech Laser FAQ: 5 Questions I Wish I'd Asked Before My First Order

I've been handling laser engraving and cutting orders for our shop for six years now. I've personally made (and documented) 12 significant mistakes, totaling roughly $4,800 in wasted budget—mostly from redoing jobs or scrapping materials. Now I maintain our team's pre-flight checklist to prevent others from repeating my errors.

This FAQ answers the questions I get most often from new operators, plus a couple I wish someone had asked me back in 2017. It's based on running a Gravotech LS900 and an M20 station. Let's get to it.

1. "Can a Gravotech laser really cut paper without burning it?"

Yes, absolutely—but it's a settings dance. This was my first expensive lesson. In my first year (2017), I made the classic "default settings" mistake on a 500-piece cardstock order. It looked fine on my screen. The result came back with brown, singed edges on every single piece. $320, straight to the trash. That's when I learned: paper is all about speed and air assist.

For thin paper or cardstock on our fiber laser, I now use very high speed (80-100% of max), very low power (often 5-10%), and crank the air assist. The air blows heat and debris away instantly, preventing scorching. Test, test, test on a scrap piece first. The surprise wasn't that it could be done; it was how clean it could be with the right tweaks.

2. "What's the deal with 3D relief laser engraving? Is it just multiple passes?"

It's more than that—it's data. I once ordered 50 anodized aluminum plaques with a 3D relief logo. Checked the vector file myself, approved it. We caught the error when the first sample came out flat. The file was just a 2D outline. $450 wasted, credibility damaged.

Lesson learned: True 3D relief engraving requires a grayscale image (like a .BMP or .JPG) where shades of gray translate to engraving depth. Black = deepest engrave, white = no engrave. Gravotech's software (like Laser System) reads this data. Don't try to fake it with multiple vector passes; you'll just get a stepped, choppy look. For the best fiber lasers in Gravotech's line for this, the M40 series handles depth control beautifully.

3. "I'm looking at a Gravotech engraving station M20. What's the one thing I should check daily?"

The lens. Period. A dirty or slightly misaligned lens is the source of maybe 40% of "why does this look bad?" calls I get. (Note to self: put this on the checklist in bold).

Every morning, I do a quick visual check and a weekly proper clean with lens paper and solution. The one time I skipped it for "just one quick job," I ended up with fuzzy engraving on a batch of stainless steel tags. That error cost $180 in redo plus a 1-day delay waiting for a new lens when I scratched the old one cleaning it hastily. 5 minutes of verification beats 5 hours of correction.

4. "What's the most common file mistake you see?"

Not converting text to outlines/paths. This is the silent killer. Your design looks perfect in Illustrator or CorelDRAW on your computer. But if the font isn't installed on the computer connected to the Gravotech laser, the software substitutes it. You might get Courier instead of your custom script. I've seen it turn "&" into "#".

The 12-point checklist I created after my third mistake has saved us an estimated $8,000 in potential rework. Point #1 is: "All text converted to curves/outlines." Point #2 is: "Verify all critical dimensions with the on-screen ruler in the laser software." Simple. Done.

5. "How do I choose between a CO2 and a fiber laser for my material?"

This is the big one. I went back and forth between fiber and CO2 for our second machine for two weeks. The charts said CO2 was more versatile for organics (wood, acrylic, leather). Our main work, however, was metals and plastics. My gut said fiber for its speed on metals and no consumable tubes. Ultimately chose fiber (a Gravotech IS series) because it matched our actual workload, not the hypothetical one.

Here's my rule of thumb now: If you're mostly engraving/cutting wood, acrylic, glass, leather, or paper, lean CO2. If you're mostly on metals, plastics, or coated materials, fiber is likely better. Gravotech's website has a material compatibility chart—use it. And if you can, get a material sample tested. Some plastics that look identical engrave very differently. (Ugh, learned that one the hard way too).

Final thought: Your Gravotech machine is incredibly capable. The bottleneck is almost always the file and material prep, not the hardware. Build a checklist. Test on scrap. And clean that lens.