Hello, I am super new to GF, this is only the 6th thing I’ve printed so far. I wanted to cut the largest circle I could to make a sign, from the before photo all was great, but when I printed there was at least an inch left on 2 of the sides. Before print and after photo attached. Is my alignment off ? Ideas?image|666x500
Welcome to the forum.
The cut area of the Glowforge is approximately 10.9" x 11.5". Your alignment is not off. Look at the printhead in its home position. You will see that there is material behind it that cannot be accessed. Similarly, to the left of the printhead is material that cannot be cut. The printhead physically cannot move any further left or back. Orient your art to the lower right hand corner, and make sure your material is as far right and forward as possible to maximize cutting/engraving area.
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Thanks! super helpful
Hello! Thank you for reaching out. I’m glad to see that @dklgood was able to help you out. To add a little more to what they said, your Glowforge bed can accommodate materials measuring 18 x 20.4”. Your Glowforge has a maximum printable area of approximately 11″ (279 mm) deep and 19.5″ (495 mm) wide, and it’s reduced somewhat when the laser operates at high speed, as it can take space for the laser to decelerate.
This means not all of the bed is displayed, or available to be printed on, so there will always be about an inch of space on the left. This material can be reused as scrap later for small pieces. For example, a lot of customers use small pieces of scrap to print these pins available in the free laser design section: Honeycomb Hold Down Pins.
I’m going to go ahead and close this thread now. If you still have any further questions or need assistance with anything else please either start a new thread or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re happy to help!