I’ve designed and cut some wooden coasters, so far using the 3.6mm powerplex (which turned out to be 5mm after I’d failed to cut it all the way through). It’s … ok, but not pretty.
Can anyone suggest another think sheet material which cuts and etches well, ideally two-sided? Where might I find a thin solid wood which would cut well? Or something else? Slate and then glue on a felt backing?
Thanks in advance,
Richard
I often use GAMMA 3mm timmerplaat, if you get one of their free loyalty cards (I’ve not given them anything to link it to myself), they’ll saw them for free into chunks that fit in the laser cutter. They’re directly on the other side of the bridge over the highway.
Multiplex timmerplaat 3 mm 122x61 cm | GAMMA
I also use acrylic, 2 and 3mm, for engraving you might need experiment with tape if you don’t want the ablated material to deposit back on the un-engraved parts.
They sell rather cheap slate coasters at action, with rubber feet and all, those make for nice laser engraved coasters, and IIRC they also have bamboo ones every once in a while
You could also make laser engraved coasters out of leather, though that’s always one-sided and stiiiinks horribly while engraving, so please be mindful of others 
Also: higher quality beach triplex/multiplex could be rather nice, or poplar triplex, but which grade of plywood you get can make a huge difference
I can highly recommend NOT doing leather. It is seriously not worth the stench and there are way better ways to get a logo or design in leather, even a 3d print embossing stamp works!
Slate is cool, bambu is cool. Visit the Action and experiment. Slate generates a bunch of dust, so get trained on lasercutter cleaning before attempting.
I’ve seen some neat ready-made wooden coasters and will try those. The slate ones I may also grab but will get the “how to clean the laser cutter after a mess” training. And I have no intention of ever trying to cut leather in the machine.