Glossary

This Glossary is of my own making, using current knowledge and resources available to me that can help define or explain some of the technical terms used in the blogs. This Glossary will be added to as the need arises. Please feel free to send messages or comment on what could be explained better, or needs added, to aid the learning experience of others.

When unusual terms are used in a blog, a Glossary will be included at the end of the blog so that you do not have to go back to this blog post every time you need to understand a term.

Glossary:

Boundary Board - An engraved substrate of shape boundaries to align you final product / substrate to for engraving. (This is not used for cutting, typically.)

Brittleness - Substrates that are hard, rigid, and easily cracked or snapped without bending bending. It may make a crack noise when it breaks. Materials that are brittle: Thin White Oak, glass, dry twigs, hard candy, cast iron.

Deplugging - The process of removing plugs / cutouts from laser cut wood that did not drop out during the cutting process. This may require a "poking tool" to help push the plug out.

Material Properties - The natural characteristics of the substrate. This can include: Strength, hardness, stiffness, brittleness, ductility, density, moisture content, resin content, melting point, porosity.

Spoil Board - (see Waste Board)

Substrate - The base material that you are engraving or cutting on. Can also be the "boundary board" or "waste board" that you use to align your working substrate on. E.g. you may select an MDF board to laser mark you boundary for a keychain, then place the keychain inside that boundary to engrave. Both the MDF and the keychain are Substrates.

Waste Board - Also knows as a "Spoil Board" is a substrate paced under the laser to protect your desk or work table, and that can be sacrificed should the laser to somewhere, or energy settings be to great, that the laser would move off your substrate or burn through your substrate unexpectedly.


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