Choosing the right plywood to laser cut - nortd/lasersaur GitHub Wiki

Types of glues

aminoplast types are ok, and mostly colorless:
- MF (melamine formaldehyde)
  - recommended
  - usually more expensive(according to Ondrej)
  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_resin
  - more limited offgassing of formaldehyde than UF
- UF (urea-formaldehyde, DE: Harnstoff Formalehyde):
  - quite ok
  - interior use only
  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea-formaldehyde
- MUF (melamine-urea-formaldehyde):
  - quite ok
  - limited outdoor use depending on the mix
  - often referred to as BS 1203 H2 compliant
- Beware of MPF (melamine-phenol-formaldehyde). These are a mix of aminoplastics and phenoplastics. NOT recommended!
phenoplast type glues are NOT recommended. Cutting them is quite problematic
- PF (phenol formaldehyde)
- RF (resorcinol formaldehyde)
vinyl based: quite ok
- usually white color
- PVA (polyvinyl acetate, "white glue")
- produced no harmful chlore based gases
- cheap
- interior use only
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_acetate
soy based (very uncommon in Europe)

You need sanded surfaces with absolutely no knots or holes. Holes will be filled with glue, and that will stop the laser beam!
Patched areas are fine as long as you can live with them from an aesthetical point of view.
Post Soviet GOST standards B, S and BB are fine. CP and C are not.

You want no openings or knots in the veneer, neither in the visible nor the invisible layers!
Thicker layers, all of good quality are better (unlike for most other plywood applications!). There is less glue to cut through, and less probability of a bad spot in one of the layers.