A 2 part post!

Made on a Glowforge
1

Hello!

Part 1

I have been loving my Glowforge! It has enabled me to start my online store which you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RenegadeGoodsShop?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Part 2

My one question is if anyone else has found plywood that is similar to proofgrade out in the wild? I ask only because the cost per board is pretty high for the amount you get (maybe it’s just me), so I was wondering if anyone else has found material that might work just as well?

For my shop, it would be fantastic to be able to get material if I am in a pinch or between plywood orders. I tried 3/4 inch white Baltic birch plywood (my local wood seller said that’s what laser folks use for their projects0 and found that it’s just a hair too thick for the Glowforge basic I have at home.

Anyway, thanks for any help or warnings you fine folks might have!

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2

Search for “material_name source” will generally net you results. In this case the best sources for Baltic are usually local hardwood shops. I get mine in 5’x5’ sheets for about $15 usd. The supplier will cut it into 12x20” pieces for me, works out to about $1.10 per full gf sheet.

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Is the Baltic birch plywood the way to go you think? Also, can you find it in the same thickness as the proofgrade material? Or is it a matter of settings on the laser? B/c it basically etched the back the wood without cutting all the way through when I used the Proofgrade setting for the cutting portion.

Thanks for the reply!

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Baltic isn’t proofgrade, you’ll have to get your own settings dialed in. In fact I color code all my sheets with a magic marker stripe down the edge: you see variance between indicidual sheets sometimes.

If you search for “Baltic settings”, this has been talked about at serious length elsewhere… I posted my go to settings for engraving and cutting a while back.

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Thanks much! This has been very helpful!

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When I use 1/8" Baltic Birch I use PG Maple play settings and that works fine.

Your original post said you did 3/4" - did you mean 1/4"? If so and Full & slow doesn’t work, you can try speeding up a bit and doing 2 passes - that keeps you from charring it.

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I used the Maple plywood settings on some colored 1/8" Baltic Birch from The Wood Gallery. It cut clean through, but got some flashback in areas where a lot of lines were together. I didn’t care about the backside so it worked out okay for me.

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I need to get 1/8’’ Baltic Birch next time. Might use the 3/4 for other projects.

Thanks!