Cutting cardstock issues

[Marco Carpio]

Hi everybody.
Lately I was laser cutting cardstock, mostly invitations and alike, and I found out that my honeycomb is dirtier than ever.
After cleaning up with Krud Kutter several times, I'm wondering if I need to use a vector pin table of some sort or something else to avoid such residues.
The main issue is that when I try to cut light colors of cardstock, I need to be very carefully handling the items made, adding too much time to the process.
Marco

[Bert Kemp]

try lowering your power or increase cut speed see if that helps what are your settings.

[Joe Pelonio]

try lowering your power or increase cut speed see if that helps what are your settings.

I think the biggest problem is not being able to get the grid perfectly clean before starting. I like to use a sacrificial piece of acrylic, the leftover 12x24 from cutting a lot of small pieces. With the low power and high speed to cut the paper/card stock it won't melt the acrylic. Air still gets through, and the paper doesn't fall through. I keep 20-30 of those around.

[Marco Carpio]

With most colored cardstock, the burns are not an issue, only with white and very light colors, and the power and speed used are working good. the problem is with the residues in the honeycomb that appears after working on several items. I'm gonna try a piece of acrylic as suggested by Joe, to see if it works for me.
Thanks

[Kev Williams]

I've mentioned this a few time before-- for a quick, cheap temporary 'pin table', try some lockwashers---

I keep this bag under my machine, they're SS washers, for #6 screws I think--
lw1.jpg

Just lay a few out, just use how many you think you'll need-
lw2.jpg

Here's a side few shot- the washers are very uniform, and only the tiny edge tip contacts the material--
lw3.jpg

not perfect but the price is right! I don't cut enough to justify a pin table, and this works well for me, should work with card stock...