First project on my glowforge (3 hours design, 3 hours cutting, 8 hours troubleshooting). Big learning curve, but it still came out alright. Learned real quick the camera is slightly fisheyed (sheet of proofgrade quickly became scrap). Also learned real quick about user defined kerf and proofgrade automatic kerf. This really screwed me up when designing the box. I used 3/8 inch x 6 inch x 3 foot pine project board from Lowes ($4.22 each) for the sides and dividers and accounted for the kerf, but I used proofgrade plywood for the bottom which accounted again for the kerf. The sides fit perfectly but the bottom was too tight because of the double kerf. Had to dremel out the bottom so it would fit together…
Also learned I need some calipers…
If interested (and after many tests), here were my settings I used on the 3/8 inch pine:
Cut: Speed 150 at full power, material thickness .32, 1 pass
Engrave: Speed 500, 100 power, material thickness .32, 2 passes
Let me know if you find better settings.
Lovely! Nice to see a PA Born in Allentown, summered in Pottsville, lived in Maryland and living in St. Croix, USVI. Always saw Hazletown sign on the trip! (driving up 81) Totally love PA but don’t miss the cold. Have my siblings send me “Seltzers” Summer Sausage.
I don’t think we have that yet. Though kerf does vary from material to material so perhaps that explains what appeared to be double kerf compensation.
I was going to say that PG doesn’t have auto-kerfing, but I see was beat to it. Either way, you did an astounding job for not having calipers-- which made all the difference for me for dialing in kerf adjustments.
Also thanks for the lead to check out Lowes for pine project board. I’d like to compare it to some Baltic birch B/BB sheets I bought.
@jonnyvermont - if you search on the forums for kerf, you can start to piece together some good write-ups on kerf, but I have not yet found a definitive write-up.
Really beautiful design and work Travis. I was eyeing some of the Lowes 3/8 boards so it’s nice to know they cut well.
If a few of your kerf adjustments were just a little off, it could just be variance in the in material itself. Even the same sheet can have slightly different thicknesses and it can be enough to interfere with a tight tolerances.
Born in Allentown, summered in Pottsville, lived in Maryland and living in St. Croix, USVI. Always saw Hazletown sign on the trip! (driving up 81) Totally love PA but don’t miss the cold. Have my siblings send me “Seltzers” Summer Sausage.
