Whelp. I just spent two hours in the fabrication studio learning what doesn't work. Sadly, I did not leave knowing what will work for sure, but I have some ideas. I brought over some scrap leather to test cutting and etching a corner of the gorget I drafted last week. I started with a section of the smaller back piece. It was a very scrappy piece indeed, but it did start to etch. The cut line, while visible, didn't cut all the way through. The leather I'm using is much thinner than the spec sheet for setting up the laser, so we adjusted the power level. For the next sample, I wanted to try some greater detail, so I used a section from the front. It etched beautifully (see below), but didn't cut at all. The machine just didn't see the vectors.
The only difference between the two files is both the etching and cutting are on the same layer on the back file; on the front file, the etching and cutting are on two different layers.
So, now my next step will be to set up a tighter proof of concept. I'm not particularly interested in owning a full gorget (nor blowing through that much leather experimenting), so I will make some leather book marks using these motifs on some heavier, flatter leather. I'll create the files two different ways- one where the different types of vectors are on the same layer, and the other on two different layers. I'll also lay out the file to the actual dimensions of leather I'll be cutting. Stand by for take two...