1/4birch plywood (from Home Depot)

also what settings do you run on that material. i tried several settings that worked on the birch for smaller cuts and i did many test before cutting the actual piece, but when it came down to cutting a bigger design that’s when i had problems not cutting through all the way. I’m guessing wood and fillers

I always use the settings for PG thick ply then I back the speed down by 5. I have the Plus, your mileage may vary.

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Thank you

You’re welcome! And if you have any difficulty, me or one of the smart people in this forum can help!

I’ll see if my local HD has some of that material tomorrow and will post my results.

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First I’d like to say that I’m sorry it’s been frustrating, we’ve all been there. You’re in the right place, almost everything you want to know about glowforging is here. I’ve got two things for you.

This will help you figure settings out.

Then, even if you’re not new, reading through everything here will cover a lot of common issues and questions:

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Probably not - it’s not something they usually stock in the stores. But if you go to the homedepot.com website and search for Columbia Forest Products you’ll find a bunch of it. HD will then ship it to store (usually free) for pickup or to your house (may be free based on how much you buy). It’s pretty quick either way (faster than GF PG orders for me in New England).

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When I got my Glowforge the first thing I did was get some of that HD birch plywood, It was awful, It was full of Bondo that was laser proof even where they just wiped the brush off, and no amount of extra power would solve it, here is an example…

Real Baltic Birch is made in Finland and under much stricter controls and cut just fine.

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Materials made for outdoors use generally don’t cut well with lasers. The glues are a lot harder to cut through. I don’t really recommend any laser cut materials be used outdoors. Acrylic would be best for being waterproof but it does not have much if any UV protection. I would try to find solid hardwood cedar for something that has any chance of lasting outdoors. Even sealing with a marine spar urethane requires re-appllication about once a year.

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I am having the same issue. I purchased some from home depot about a month ago and it cut fine. I ordered the same exact plywood this last time and it won’t cut. It doesn’t even look like the same wood.
I checked Home Depot and this plywood comes up in the search “glowforge plywood”. Not sure what the problem is.

Home Depot plywood is terribly inconsistent. If you have a local lumber yard anywhere near you - true Baltic birch plywood is cheap and cuts beautifully. A 5’x5’ sheet of 1/8” runs about $12 and yields 15 Glowforge size sheets, 1/4” about $20 same size sheet.

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thanks for all the info and help but i’m looking into their return policy on this. I’ve had it for a bit over a month and only cut 3 items with the pass through which is why i bought it in the first place. i can cut smaller pieces but like i said the pass through was really what i was looking forward to using. And to top it off i haven’t heard back from customer service on this issue. Again thanks for everyone’s help

You can buy Proofgrade material in larger passthrough sizes which support actually can help you with. GF customer support doesn’t support non PG materials for a reason: the manufacturing is out of their control, therefore there’s no way to guarantee performance of low grade Home Depot product. If you insist on using a product not meant for laser cutting it’s not a support issue.

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If you have a Pro, you have the passthrough slots. Nothing is preventing you from using them. The auto alignment software that is in beta is not necessary to use the passthrough feature. Many of us with the Pro have been using it since the machine was released.

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There is plenty reasons i don’t use it, neither the automatic or manual alignment ever work, the gf stops my projects halfway. I never said the pass through was a material issue.

They have maybe one item in a bigger size, everything is always sold out. So i don’t understand the reasoning behind saying you can create huge projects yet don’t have actual material for it. And say its not a support issue if you try to use non pg material.

I guess I assumed that’s why you were “looking into their return policy” - not being able to figure out how to get good settings is no basis for looking for a return.

Nope, I’ve tried plenty of settings and had plenty of trial and error. I don’t like coming on here and just asking for an answer without ever trying. Me wanting to return the gf is the machine itself beyond alignment issues. I understand they sell pg material for a reason. But as i look in this forum many use materials other than pg. Again thanks for everyone’s help

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The HD birch was the first thing I purchased of non PG wood and have noted the issues. When I bought my pro. alignment was nowhere as good as now. With the software improvements, and more experience on my part I can now cut to the fraction of a millimeter even without bothering to go to the special “pro alignment” process. I use the edge of the crumb tray to set my vertical and can thus keep the same x value when I move the material and can match the “Y” component very easily.

If you cannot do this it is unlikely to be the machine if it does not have a discoverable problem. The PG materials are largely to allow new users to have a minimum of problems without all the issues you have discovered using unknown sources, I have discovered that even with everything correct a long strait cut will cut deeper than a tight curly one as this is an improvement over the early times when the power did not vary with speed (and tight curly lines cannot reach the same speed as on straight aways) and the result that every corner was burned through and often a bit of a mess.

You do need to understand the nuances if you would use the machine and get the best results, but this is true of almost anything.

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