Teak is the oiliest exotic wood in the workshop: it holds a natural oil that makes it rot-proof, and that completely changes how it behaves under a laser. Engraving looks superb and very contrasted, but the oil smokes, fouls the lens and demands serious extraction.
Settings: what really matters
Teak's oil absorbs the beam very well: engraving marks at low power. Around 40 to 50% at 2,400 mm/min with a 20 W diode already gives a deep brown. Pushing the power does not darken it further — it digs in and releases a black resin that is hard to clean.
For cutting, teak resists: dense and oily, it wants a low speed (about 150 mm/min at full power with a 20 W diode on 3 mm) and two passes from 5 mm. With a 40 W CO2 or above, one slow pass gives a cleaner edge than two fast ones.
Air assist is essential here, not optional: without it the oily smoke settles straight onto the surface and the edge turns sticky and black.
Clean the lens more often than usual. On a teak run, a check every 30 to 40 minutes avoids losing power gradually without understanding why.
Common thicknesses and pitfalls
Teak is mostly worked in 3, 5, 8 and 10 mm: deck strips, trivets, serving boards, handles. Beyond 8 mm, leave cutting to a CO2; a diode spends an unreasonable amount of machine time there.
Classic pitfall: reclaimed teak. A deck strip or garden furniture has often been treated (commercial teak oil, saturator, sometimes varnish). Those products smoke differently and can release irritants: only laser wood whose treatment you know.
Second pitfall: the glue lines in laminated teak panels, harder than the wood, which stall a cut for a few millimetres. Keep a power margin or plan a knife finish.
Colour varies a lot from board to board, from honey to dark brown. A setting validated on one board gives a different contrast on the next: run a fresh test square with every new batch.
Risks and finishing
Teak is the wood where extraction matters most: its smoke is oily, it settles everywhere and the smell stays in the workshop for days. Work with outside extraction or a carbon filter in good condition.
Teak dust irritates skin and eyes, and sensitises some people. Vacuum rather than blow, and wash your hands after the batch.
The fire risk is real as soon as a second pass runs over a line already loaded with resin: never leave the machine unattended and keep a fire blanket within reach.
For finishing, teak needs nothing: 240-grit sanding and its own oil are enough. Soot around an engraving comes off with a damp cloth, never with solvent, which spreads the oil and blurs the outline.
Every figure on LaserSettings comes with the machine, the laser source, the material and the thickness it was tested on. A setting published for a 10 W diode says nothing about a 40 W CO2, and a setting for 3 mm says nothing about 6 mm: check those four things before you copy any number.
Settings are confirmed or disputed by the members who reproduce them, so reliability comes from cross-checking rather than popularity. Photos of the result — cut edges, engraving shades, scorching — tell you more than a single number found on a forum.
Whatever the material, treat a published setting as a starting point: run a small power/speed test grid on an offcut, clean the lens, redo the focus, work with fume extraction and air assist, wear glasses rated for your wavelength and never leave the machine unattended.