New to Lasers? Start Here
Seven days from opening the box to finishing a first piece. Each day is about an hour of reading plus one thing to actually do at the machine, because none of this goes in by reading alone. This path is machine-agnostic: fiber, CO2, and diode owners all start here, and each day points you at the version for your machine.
Before day one
Do not fire the laser at anything until you have read the Universal Safety Codex. Two of the ways a laser hurts you are invisible: the wrong wavelength glasses, and the fumes off a material you assumed was safe. Both are covered on day two, and neither waits politely for you to get there.
Day 1What the machine actually doesAbout 1 hour
- Laser types compared: fiber, CO2, diode
- Physics in plain English
- Materials science primer: why a material marks at all
- Buying your first laser, if you have not bought yet
- Do: say out loud which family your machine belongs to and what it physically cannot do. A fiber will not cut wood, a CO2 will not mark bare aluminum, a diode will not touch clear acrylic. Every frustrating day later traces back to asking a machine for the wrong wavelength.
Day 2Safety, before anything else burnsAbout 1 hour
- Universal safety codex
- Fiber safety · CO2 safety · Diode safety
- Workshop setup: ventilation, fire, power, bench
- Do: check that your glasses are rated for your machine's wavelength, not just "laser glasses". Put a fire extinguisher within arm's reach of the machine, not across the shop. Confirm where the fumes go.
Day 3MaterialAbout 1 hour
- Material identification: what is this stuff?
- Masking: painter's tape vs Oramask
- Do: sort your scrap pile and label it. Anything you cannot identify goes in the bin, not in the machine. Unknown plastic is how people put chlorine gas through their own lungs and rust through their own machine.
Day 4Software and filesAbout 90 minutes
- Software, file formats and design tools
- Your first LightBurn project, step by step
- LightBurn setup for galvo (fiber) · for Ruida (CO2) · for GRBL (diode)
- Do: install LightBurn, connect to the machine, and frame a rectangle with the laser off. Framing is the single habit that prevents most ruined blanks.
Day 5Focus and the four settingsAbout 1 hour
- Focusing a fiber: three methods · CO2 focus and autofocus · Focusing a diode
- Layer settings deep dive (fiber) · CO2 · diode
- Image modes and dithering
- Do: run a focus test on scrap. Out of focus is responsible for more bad results than every setting in LightBurn combined, and it looks exactly like "my machine is weak".
Day 6Finding your own settingsAbout 90 minutes
- LightBurn Material Test: the range helper
- Recipe and settings management
- Recipe browser: community settings database
- Job recommender: tell us what you are engraving
- Do: run one material test on the material you will use most, then keep the tile. Somebody else's settings are a starting point; the tile off your own machine is the answer.
Day 7Your first real pieceHalf a day
- Powder-coat tumbler walkthrough (any machine)
- Brass challenge coin (fiber) · Wedding sign (CO2) · Leather wallet (diode or CO2)
- Failure diagnostics: reading what went wrong
- Do: make something small, cheap and forgiving. A keychain, a coaster, a tag. Not the anniversary gift, and not on the only blank you own.
After the first week
Once you have finished a piece, the next step is the two-week path for your machine. Those go deeper than this one and end with production-quality work:
- Fiber 14-day onboarding path
- Diode 14-day onboarding path
- CO2 owners: work the CO2 Foundations modules in order, starting at RF metal tube vs glass tube and CO2 laser anatomy.
After that, roughly in the order they improve your work:
- Image preparation, because most bad engravings are bad files, not bad settings.
- Accessories and pro tips and air assist, the two upgrades that change results the most for the least money.
- Pricing and customer intake, the moment anyone offers to pay you.
- Marketing and selling laser work and Etsy SEO, if this is going to pay for itself.
- YouTube channel directory, for watching someone do it rather than reading about it.