Help & FAQ

It is a free, community-driven library of laser cutter and engraver settings — power, speed, line interval, passes, and more — for a huge range of machines and materials.

The goal is simple: stop guessing. Instead of running dozens of test cuts from scratch, you find a known starting point for your machine and material, send it to your laser, and fine-tune from there.

The library covers CO2, diode, fiber/infrared, UV, and RF machines, and it grows constantly from manufacturer references, trusted supplier libraries, and settings shared by other makers.

Yes — free forever. There are no paid tiers and no charges, ever.

Maker Foundry makes money from the blanks and supplies we sell and from affiliate partnerships, not from subscriptions. The library is a way to help the maker community and bring people into it.

The only thing we ask is a free sign-in with your email (see "Why do I need to sign in?"), which keeps you in the loop on new features and deals.

There are two ways, both free:

1. Email — enter your email on the login page and we send you a one-time sign-in code. Paste it in and you are in. No password to remember.
2. Continue with Google — one click with your Google account.

You can browse setting pages without signing in, but signing in unlocks the actions: exporting/downloading files, saving favorites, saving your own private copies, voting, submitting settings, and registering your machines.

Signing in is what keeps the library free. It lets us keep you posted on new settings, tools, and deals, and it powers your personal features — favorites, saved copies, your machines, and votes.

Reading setting pages is public (great for quick reference and search). The verbs — export, save, submit, favorite, vote — need a free account so they are tied to you.

Use the left sidebar on desktop, or the menu on mobile. The main areas:

• Library — browse and search all validated settings.
• By Material — the same settings grouped by material.
• Tools — calculator, converters, and the file converter.
• Favorites / My Settings / My Machines — your personal area.
• Planner, Gifting Calendar, Project Ideas — planning and inspiration.
• Brands & Suppliers, Discounts, Communities — where to buy and where to hang out.
• Help / FAQ — this help center.

Yes. The whole app is mobile-friendly — browse, search, view settings, and copy values from your phone right at the machine. Exporting files is easiest on a computer where you will import them into LightBurn or xTool software, but everything else works great on mobile.

Start on the Library page (the home page when signed in). The fastest paths:

1. Type in the search bar — it matches material, color, brand, machine, and notes all at once. Try "P3 acrylic" or "basswood cut".
2. Use the filter dropdowns to narrow by manufacturer, machine, laser type, operation, and more.
3. Or switch to By Material to browse everything grouped by material.

Every result links to a full setting page with the numbers and an export button.

The search is multi-word and searches everywhere at once — material, color, brand, vendor, manufacturer, machine, notes, laser type, and surface. Every word you type must appear somewhere in the result.

So "f2 tumbler" finds a setting on an F2 machine for a tumbler material, even though those two words are in different fields. Keep adding words to narrow it down.

Each dropdown narrows the list. You can combine as many as you like; active filters show as removable chips with a live result count.

• Manufacturer — the machine brand (xTool, Aeon, OneLaser, etc.).
• Machine — the specific model. Picking a manufacturer trims this to just their machines.
• Laser type — Diode, CO2, Fiber/Infrared, UV, RF, or IR.
• Operation — Cut, Engrave, or Score.
• Surface / setup — the processing mode/setup a setting was made for.
• Vector/bitmap — vector (line) vs bitmap (raster/image) work.
• Wattage — laser power of the machine.
• Brand — the material brand.
• Source type — where the setting came from (see "What do the source labels mean?").
• Thickness — material thickness (mostly on cut settings).
• Vendor — the supplier the material is sold by.

Use Clear all to reset everything.

Yes — use the sort dropdown:

• Newest first (default) — most recently added settings.
• Oldest first.
• Most favorited — the settings the community saves the most, a good signal of what works.

A toggle at the top of the Library switches how results are shown:

• Detailed — larger cards with the full numbers, notes, and shop links visible.
• Compact — image-forward, tighter cards so you can scan a lot of settings quickly, then tap one for the details.

Both load more results as you go with a Load more button, and the header shows how many of the total you are viewing.

By Material flips the library around: instead of one row per setting, it groups everything by material (and color, and machine). Open a material and you will see its engrave, cut, and score settings linked together, with cut settings broken out by thickness.

It is the best view when you know the material you are working with and want to see every option across machines at a glance.

Signed-out visitors see a public sample so the library is discoverable and searchable on Google. Sign in free to unlock the full library, all filters, and every action. Individual setting pages are fully public — you can read any one you land on.

On each setting page you will see:

• Power — laser power, as a percentage of the machine's max.
• Speed — how fast the head moves (usually mm/s; some machines use mm/min).
• LPC / DPI / Line Interval — engraving resolution. Line interval is the gap between scan lines (smaller = finer/darker); DPI/LPI is the same idea expressed as dots/lines per inch. This only applies to engraving, not cutting.
• Passes — how many times the laser repeats the path (more passes cut thicker material).
• Frequency / Pulse Width — fine controls used mostly on fiber/CO2 for certain effects.
• Engraving angle — the scan angle for engraves.
• Crosshatch — whether the engrave is filled in two directions.
• Thickness — material thickness the cut was tested at.
• Lens — the lens used (mostly CO2), when provided.

• Cut — a vector line that goes all the way through the material.
• Engrave — burning a surface mark, either filled art/text (raster/bitmap) or a light vector line.
• Score — a light vector line that marks the surface without cutting through (great for fold lines or outlines).

Cut and Score are vector operations, so they do not use a line interval — you will only see that on Engrave settings.

On a setting page, this panel links together every setting for the same material on the same machine:

• The Engrave setting is shown once (engraving does not change with thickness).
• Cut settings are listed by thickness (3mm, 6mm, 10mm…), so you can jump straight to the thickness you have.
• Score appears if available.

The one you are currently viewing is highlighted. It is the quickest way to move between thicknesses without going back to search.

Each setting shows where it came from so you know how much to trust it as-is:

• Supplier reference / Official — from a manufacturer or supplier's own library. Great context, but still test on your machine.
• Maker Foundry — shared or derived by us as a starting point.
• Community report — shared by another maker. Helpful, but not verified for every setup.

No matter the source, always run a test on scrap first — see the safety notice on every setting page.

Because no two setups are identical. Tube age and wattage drift, lens and focus, air assist, material batch, ambient temperature, and mirror alignment all shift results. A setting from the library is a starting point, not a guarantee.

Run the setting on a scrap piece of the same material, check the result, and adjust power/speed slightly if needed. The built-in Test Grid Generator (see Tools) makes this fast.

Open any setting page and use the Export panel (you need to be signed in). Depending on the machine you get:

• LightBurn — a .clb library file. Import it in LightBurn and the material appears in your Material Library with no retyping.
• xTool — an XCS .json file. In xTool Creative Space, import it via Materials → Import.
• Copy — copies the numbers as text so you can type them into any software.

The app picks the right format for the machine automatically.

1. Download the .clb from the setting's Export panel.
2. In LightBurn, open the Material Library window (Window → Material Library).
3. Click the import icon and choose the downloaded .clb file.
4. The material/setting now appears in your library — right-click it to apply to a layer.

Tip: the file is named for the material and machine, so your library stays organized.

1. Download the XCS .json from the Export panel.
2. In xTool Creative Space, go to the material/parameters area and choose Materials → Import.
3. Select the downloaded .json file. The setting loads with the correct process type (cut, fill/engrave, or line engrave) already mapped.

Yes. The Export panel has a Copy button that puts the full setting on your clipboard as plain text — machine, material, operation, power, speed, and the rest. Handy for machines/software that are not LightBurn or xTool, or to paste into your own notes.

On any setting page, click Save a private copy. This copies the setting into your personal My Settings area, where you can:

• Edit any value to match what actually worked on your machine,
• Keep your dialed-in version separate from the public one,
• Export your version anytime.

Your private copies are only visible to you. This is the right way to "tweak and keep" a setting.

Go to My Settings in the sidebar, open the copy you want, and click Edit. Change the power, speed, notes, or any field, and save. Your edits never touch the public library — they are your personal version. You can export your edited copy just like any other setting.

Tap the heart on any setting (or on its card) to favorite it. Everything you favorite collects on the Favorites page for one-tap access later. Favorites are a bookmark — they do not copy the setting, so if you want an editable version use Save a private copy instead.

Favorite counts also feed the "Most favorited" sort, so favoriting good settings helps other makers too.

Four free tools, all under Tools:

• Project Calculator — price a job.
• Setting Converter — estimate settings for a different wattage.
• Line Density Converter — convert between DPI, LPI, and line interval.
• File Converter — convert between LightBurn .clb and xTool XCS .json.

None of them require any install — they run right in your browser.

The Project Calculator prices a project before you cut. Enter your material cost, labor, machine time, and margin, and it gives you a customer total plus the profit breakdown.

Use it to quote jobs consistently instead of guessing. You can save a quote to your Planner to reference later.

The Setting Converter estimates a starting point for a different wattage of the same laser type. Say a setting is for a 40W machine and you have a 60W — enter the source setting and your wattage and it gives three graded options:

• Balanced — hold the speed, adjust power.
• Faster — keep the power, raise the speed (best for cutting on a stronger laser).
• Cooler — lower power and slow down (delicate/heat-sensitive materials).

It keeps energy-per-length roughly constant, and it never pushes a CO2 setting past 90% (running a glass CO2 tube at 100% shortens its life). It will not convert across laser types (diode↔CO2↔fiber) because the physics differ — always verify on a test grid.

The Line Density Converter translates engraving resolution between the units different software uses — DPI, LPI, and line interval (mm). LightBurn thinks in line interval; xTool and others often use DPI. DPI and LPI are treated as equivalent here. As always, confirm the look on a test grid.

Use the File Converter:

1. Upload your LightBurn .clb library (or an xTool XCS .json).
2. The tool converts it to the other format, mapping cut/fill/line-engrave process types correctly.
3. Download the converted file and import it into the other software.

This is great when you switch machines or share settings with someone on a different platform.

On LightBurn-machine setting pages you will find a Test Grid Generator in the sidebar. Give it a center power and speed (it prefills from the setting) and it builds a ready-to-run .lbrn2 grid where each square is a different power/speed combination.

Run the grid on scrap, pick the square that looks best, and you have dialed-in numbers in one pass instead of many trial cuts.

Click Submit in the sidebar (or the "Submit a setting" button) and fill in the form: machine, material, operation, power, speed, and any other fields you know. Add notes and a photo if you can.

Your submission goes into a pending queue for a quick review, then it publishes to the library credited to you. Sharing what worked for you helps the whole community.

New community submissions land in a moderation queue first, so the public library stays trustworthy. Once it is approved it goes live (you may see it marked "pending" in the meantime). If something is off, it may be edited for clarity or held — nothing personal, just keeping the data clean.

On the submit form (and on your saved copies) there is an image upload field — choose a photo of your test result or finished piece and it attaches to the setting. Photos help other makers judge whether a setting matches the look they want, and they make the material browse view much nicer.

Yes — the Submit a library flow lets you upload a LightBurn .clb library file so many settings can be brought in together rather than typing them one by one. As with single submissions, imported settings are reviewed before they go live.

On each setting page you can leave a quick community vote:

• Worked — it ran well as-is,
• Needed tweaks — close, but you adjusted it,
• Had issues — it did not work for you.

The tallies tell the next maker how reliable a setting is in the real world. It takes one tap and it is the single most helpful thing you can do after using a setting.

Use the Report button on the setting page. Tell us what is wrong (bad numbers, unsafe, duplicate, etc.). Reports go to our moderators, who review and fix or remove the setting. Reporting bad data keeps the library accurate for everyone — please do it whenever something looks off.

Go to My Machines to add the machines you own (brand, model, laser type, wattage). Registering them unlocks two things:

1. Smart matching — setting pages show how well a setting matches *your* machine (exact model, same wattage, or same laser type) and flag the differences to watch.
2. Prefill — forms prefill your machine's wattage and type so you spend less time typing.

You can add as many machines as you own.

When you have registered a machine, each setting compares itself to your best-matching one and tells you plainly: same exact model, same wattage, or just the same laser type — and what is different (for example, "same laser type, but 20W stronger"). It helps you judge how much you will need to adjust before cutting.

My Settings is your private workspace — every setting you saved a copy of, plus any you submitted. You can edit your copies, add notes and photos, and export them. Nothing here is public unless you submitted it to the library.

The Planner stores the project quotes you save from the Project Calculator, so you can come back to a job you priced, tweak it, and reuse it. Think of it as your quoting scratchpad.

Project Ideas are guides for things to make — what sells, the steps, materials, tips, and pricing pointers. A good place to find your next project and the settings/materials to pull it off.

The Gifting Calendar maps out gift-giving occasions through the year with project ideas tied to each one — so you can plan seasonal products ahead of the rush and know what to make when.

Check the Definitions page — a plain-language glossary of laser terms (line interval, kerf, DPI, air assist, and more). If you hit a word on a setting page you do not recognize, it is probably explained there.

The Supplies & Accessories page lists gear and materials worth having, and Brands & Suppliers collects the vendors behind the settings. Many include a discount code or affiliate link (see Deals & Discounts).

The Discounts page lists current codes and deals on lasers and maker gear, and each brand has its own page (for example, xTool discounts). You will also see the relevant code right on setting pages next to the "Shop" link for that material or machine.

The Discounts page is always the source of truth, but common ones include:

• xTool — ERIK100 ($100 off $1,699+) or ERIK80 ($80 off $999+)
• OneLaser — ERIK
• All American Print Supply — FOUNDRY
• LoneStar Adhesive — Erik10 (10% off)
• ProColored — ERIK100
• RICOMA — via the referral link on the discounts page

Codes and terms can change, so check the discounts page before you buy.

When you click a "Shop" link or use one of our codes, Maker Foundry may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — and you often get a discount on top. It is what keeps the settings library free.

Using the code at checkout is the most reliable way to support us (and save), since it works regardless of cookies or browser settings.

The Communities page links all of our groups in one place — the main Maker Foundry Facebook group, the Afterburn Show group, machine-specific xTool owner communities (P3, F2, F2 Ultra, F2 UV, Omni), the Tumbler Files group, and the YouTube channel. Join the ones that fit your machine and projects.

Maker Foundry builds a whole toolkit for makers — all separate apps you may find useful:

• TumblerForge (tumblerforge.makerfoundryco.com) — a 3D tumbler mockup studio for designing and previewing wraps.
• ToneSmith (tonesmith.makerfoundryco.com) — halftone/separation tools for DTF and DTG printing.
• PatchForge (patchforge.makerfoundryco.com) — a patch and patch-hat mockup builder.
• Afterburn Show / Podcast (afterburn.show) — the Maker Foundry show and podcast for the laser/maker community.

And our blanks brand, Maker Foundry (makerfoundryco.com), supplies the blanks and materials behind many of these projects.

Afterburn (afterburn.show) is Maker Foundry's show/podcast for makers — interviews, techniques, gear talk, and community. There is also an Afterburn Show Facebook group to keep the conversation going between episodes.

That is expected sometimes — a library setting is a starting point. Work through the usual variables:

1. Check focus and material thickness first (the biggest culprits).
2. Confirm air assist and lens match what the setting assumed.
3. Nudge power up / speed down for more cut or darker engrave; the reverse for less.
4. Run the Test Grid Generator to bracket around the numbers quickly.
5. Remember tube age lowers effective power on CO2 over time.

When you find what works, Save a private copy with your numbers, and please leave a vote so others know.

Running a glass CO2 tube at 100% power dramatically shortens its life. Best practice is to keep max power around 80–90% and, if you need more cutting power, slow down or add a pass instead. Our Setting Converter enforces this automatically for CO2.

Line interval is an engraving parameter — the spacing between scan lines. A cut is a single vector line, so a line interval does not apply to it. If you ever see one on a cut, it is leftover noise and can be ignored; you will only find it on engrave settings where it belongs.

A few things to try:

• Check spam/promotions for the email with your one-time code, and give it a minute.
• Make sure you entered the same email you signed up with.
• Try Continue with Google instead.

Still stuck? Reach out through any of our community groups and we will help.

Make sure you are importing the right format into the right program — .clb goes into LightBurn's Material Library, and XCS .json goes into xTool Creative Space via Materials → Import. If you have the opposite file for your software, run it through the File Converter first. Also confirm your software is reasonably up to date.