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Power, speed, passes, focus and air assist.

• How to stop scorch marks and smoke staining

  Scorch marks come from smoke, not from the beam. Air assist, masking, honeycomb support and faster passes each fix a different cause — here is which is yours.

• Focus: the setting that fixes most cutting problems

  How to set focus, why a warped sheet ruins a cut that worked yesterday, and where to focus in thick material to keep the edge square.

• Air assist and extraction: what each one does

  Air assist improves the cut; extraction protects you. Why they are different systems, what pressure to run, and why a recirculating filter is not extraction.

• Power, speed and passes, and how they trade off

  Why the same cut can be made three different ways, when to add passes instead of power, and why there is never one correct setting for a material.