Free tool · for laser engravers and makers
Laser Settings & Material Test Log
This free log records the laser settings that already worked — one row per material, machine and operation, carrying the power, speed, passes, focus, lines per inch and air assist you used, the result you got, and the date you dialed it in. A setting that is perfect on one laser is wrong on a laser of a different wattage, and it goes slowly wrong on the same laser as its tube or module ages — yet that hard-won knowledge often lives in the laser software on one computer, in a phone photo of a scrap board, or nowhere at all. It opens on a worked example — 26 settings from the full workbook's own fictional sample shop, across 3 machines and 16 materials — so nothing is blank when you download it. Underneath sits a power-by-speed test grid whose axes calculate from a start and a step you choose, for finding a setting on scrap instead of on a customer's piece, and the same PU-versus-PVC leatherette safety note the paid guide carries. It records settings; it does not price a job — Ardent Seller's free Laser & CNC Job Cost Calculator does that, in your browser, also free, and neither one replaces the other.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the file.
What it does
- One row per material, machine and operation — power %, speed, passes, focus or Z offset, lines per inch, air assist, the result you got, and the date you dialed it in.
- Converts every speed to mm/s for you, because one machine's software logs mm/s and the next logs mm/min, and two numbers in different units cannot be compared until something converts them.
- Reads each laser's wattage off your own machine list onto every row — the standing reminder that a setting found on a 60 W CO2 tube is not a setting for a 20 W diode.
- A power-by-speed test grid whose row and column headings calculate from a start and a step you set, so you can widen or narrow the hunt without retyping the grid — and it restates the setting you copy in from your log, so you can see whether it lands inside the grid and widen it until it does.
- Ships pre-filled with 26 worked rows from the full workbook's own fictional sample shop — birch plywood, cast acrylic, walnut veneer, cork, slate, anodized aluminum and powder-coated tumblers among its 16 materials, run on a 60 W CO2, a 20 W diode and a 30 W fiber, with engrave, cut, mark and photo-engrave settings. Delete them and log your own.
- Carries the safety note that matters most here: PU and PVC-backed leatherette can look identical on the shelf, and lasering PVC-backed material releases hydrogen chloride, which is toxic to you and corrodes the laser. Find out which one you have before you burn it — ask your supplier, and check the material's safety data sheet.
Related reading
- How to Price Laser-Engraved Products The costing side this log deliberately leaves out, start to finish.
- What is Machine-Hour Cost? What an hour of your laser costs before anybody touches it.
- Glowforge vs xTool Cost Per Job Why the same setting on two machines is not the same job.
- The Hidden Cost of 'Free' Templates When a free tool stops being the cheap option.
- Free tools for makers & sellers The rest of the free shelf for people who sell what they make.
Own it, don't rent it
Want the shop, not just the settings?
This free log remembers your settings, and stops there. The full Laser Engraving Business Workbook works out what an hour of each laser really costs you — purchase price over its working life, the tube or diode module over its rated hours, and wall draw at your electricity rate — fits each piece onto its sheet with kerf and edge margin for a true cost per piece, turns your own failed-burn log into a measured failure rate per material, and re-prices the whole catalog the moment a blank, a tube or the electricity rate moves, naming the listings now under target. It runs personalized orders from proof to shipped, tracks blank stock against what your live orders have already promised, and schedules maintenance in machine hours rather than weeks. Ten connected tabs in Excel and Google Sheets, plus two guides and a 13-page set of printable settings and job cards.
A one-time purchase you keep and re-price from, season after season — the owned system between a blank spreadsheet and a monthly maker inventory subscription.
A record-keeping template, not safety, engineering, or legal advice. Every setting in it is illustrative and comes from a fictional sample shop — machines, lenses, material batches and software versions all differ, so test on scrap and follow your machine maker's ratings, settings guidance and safety instructions, and the material supplier's safety data sheet. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.