The Laser Kerf Offset & Path Welder previews vector geometry compensation for laser cutters, CNC routers, and vinyl plotters to achieve tight friction fits on mechanical assemblies.

### Understanding Laser Kerf Compensation When a focused laser beam vaporizes material, it creates a cut channel known as kerf. Without path compensation, outer edges shrink by half the beam width and interior holes enlarge, causing finger joints and gear teeth to fit loosely: - **Typical Beam Kerfs**: Fiber lasers ($0.08\text{ mm}$), CO2 lasers ($0.15\text{ mm}$), diode lasers ($0.20\text{ mm}$), and vinyl blades ($0.05\text{ mm}$). - **Compensation Cut Modes**: - **Outer Only**: Expands exterior perimeter contours outward by the kerf offset. - **Holes Only**: Contracts internal bores, bolt holes, and slots inward. - **Both**: Simultaneously offsets outer boundaries outward and internal cutouts inward. - **Node Welding**: Identifies overlapping or disconnected bezier endpoints within tolerance thresholds, attaching kerf metadata attributes to the exported SVG file.

### Worked Example Workflow Suppose you cut a slotted acrylic plate using a $40\text{W}$ CO2 laser with a measured $0.15\text{ mm}$ kerf: 1. Select the **Box** mechanical preset or paste your custom SVG vector markup. 2. Set the Beam Kerf slider to **$0.15\text{ mm}$** (or click the 0.15 CO2 preset button). 3. Select **Both** to expand the tab boundaries while contracting the mounting slots. 4. The tool renders visual offset outlines and attaches metadata tags ('data-kerf=0.15' and 'data-welded=true'). 5. Click **Download Kerf-Compensated SVG** to export the ready-to-cut file for LightBurn or Glowforge.

### In-Browser SVG Processing Vector XML parsing, path node extraction, and SVG generation execute entirely in client browser memory using Blob and DOM APIs. No proprietary blueprints, SVG designs, or DXF conversions are uploaded to any server.