Has anyone used 1/4 inch birchwood plywood on the aura ??? Im new and dont want to cause a fire
Yes, though not easily. Keep in mind, your issue is less likely to be fire and more likely to be failure. The generic hardware store plywood frequently has stuff in it that won’t cut.
Some stores sell a specific brand that’s good in lasers, Forest something. I’m sure someone will be along who knows the actual name!
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I don’t think the Aura is the best machine for 1/4" materials.
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Thank you
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do you think I can do 1/8 inch birchwood. i am not able to select any birch from my materials list… a little confused
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Glowforge mostly only supplies settings for the materials they sell under the Proofgrade® name. (There are exceptions; they provide settings for a few other materials as well.)
Glowforge doesn’t currently sell any birch products so they don’t provide any settings for it. However, they probably have settings for using some of their other woods in the Aura so I’d try selecting one of them (such as poplar or cherry or maple) and trying that. They’ll be listed as “medium” size in the materials list as that’s what Glowforge labels their 1/8" woods.
You might need to tweak the settings a bit but the settings for any of their Proofgrade medium hardwood varieties would be a good starting point.
I don’t know how well wood works in the Aura, as I have a GF Pro, but I’d imagine 1/8" birch is likely doable, although it may be slow and take multiple passes to cut through it.
Engraving on wood should work great, though.
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Proofgrade wood has a finished surface while not much else does. There are sources of what is called Baltic Birch that has strict rules that are not followed much elsewhere. I have found that regular birch can be especially horrid. Other plywoods often have an MDF core that can be extremely problematic.
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