Testing my Laser using a random escapement wheel
I was anxious to keep making gears after completing Steve's SP14 clock. I'm considering building a wooden clock as well and thought I'd give the laser a try cutting out a gear. So I just found and downloaded the first free wood gear file I could find and ran it on 1/8" Birch Ply. Came out beautiful. Cut in only 3 minutes with a single pass. I think my laser will do just fine producing laser cut clock parts.
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I did my first CNC router experiments using Home Depot plywood. They came out reasonably well after I got the router tuned up. But when I went back to Home Depot for more material, it was all crap. Most CNC router builders recommend Baltic Birch plywood for gears. Laser cutters might have different recommendations.
Your experiment looks great on the flat surfaces, but the core looks a bit rough. That is the surface that matters when making gears. Baltic Birch has thick layers without voids. Aircraft plywood is another option, but crazy expensive. A 4'x4'x1/4" sheet with 12 plies could be $140. Experiments should be done on generic plywood.
The wood desktop clock was for a woodworking club challenge to build something using a limited amount of bamboo. Technically, it is grass but works like wood. The gears are small enough to work with flat cut material. The clock is about 7" tall with gears around 0.2" thick.