Alder 12x5 board

[Bill]

The alder comes with a paper sheet attached. Does is matter whether which side you laser? I assume the paper comes off before lasering?

[TimG]

You should leave the paper on and put the board in paper side down. During the vector cutout step, this should help reduce charring/scorching on the back side (since the laser puts a lot of power into blasting through). The paper will get blackened on the edges of the vector cuts and keep the back side a bit cleaner.