Autofocus saves the day

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Didn’t notice how warped this piece of Proofgrade Maple ply (actually two are twist warped a fair amount). So put this in without noticing, and fired off one of the sheets of puzzles.

I was sort of glancing, but not really looking too close, until I realized parts were dropping during the cut phase by over 1/4", and a few weren’t falling down completely so were at a tilt as they wedged against other pieces!!! I was standing like a hawk after that waiting for the fire as the beam defocused. Pfft. This is a Glowforge baby… Even the tilted ones engraved perfectly!!!

@Dan, give the autofocus developer an extra beer or whatever, that was amazing…

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I didn’t realize auto focus was active! This is a use-case I hadn’t thought of! :slight_smile:

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second time it has saved my bacon (or prevented my work from turning into bacon)

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Give that person a whole 6-pack! This is really impressive.

Glad to see the puzzles coming along so well too :slight_smile:

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last sheet in the GF now!

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Haha Thats awesome. Admittedly autofocus is the one feature I haven’t thought about much. Haha.

(PS if using autofocus means I don’t get bacon don’t want it. :wink: Haha)

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Awesome news! Cool real world demo!

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Wow you weren’t kidding when you said that the wood was warped. I am very pleasantly surprised to see how well the GF cut and engraved your puzzle. Great pictures. :relaxed:

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Great show about the autofocus. Not good about the warp. If it is twisting that much when you unpack it that might deserve a support report. I’ve not had anything like that in my Proofgrade since the first shipment included some maple skinned MDF that didn’t make the grade.

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That was the initial shipment, I’m waiting for my “refill” order to see how they come.

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Thank god. My other laser I’d have to start over. Then again I was a lot more conscious about operation order before lol

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But that would have sucked anyway given the warp…

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Yeah sometimes you don’t even notice how bad the warp is til you see the pieces drop!

I have to be a bit conscious about it on mine. If I’m engraving something on 1/4" thick and will be cutting it out, I HAVE to do engrave first, because my gantry is crooked, so when I cut it out, it will slide down at an angle! Hahaha

The engrave will be offset by a mm or two because of the slide. I have to be really conscious about inside/outside cuts as well. All insides first to prevent cutting in the wrong spot

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Yeah, if your work is turning into bacon, that’s a Passover miracle, or curse depending on how you look at it,

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I put in a new piece of PG tonight…and it’s warped, too. As @henryhbk said, I also watched pieces drop down…but everything came out beautifully.

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It’s a major advance if dynamic autofocus is working. I am surprised it wasn’t mentioned in the April announcement.

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Brilliant.

Been wondering about puzzles. @henryhbk, is the kerf such that the pieces still fit very tightly? Depends on material & thickness I guess.

Has anyone else tried puzzles?

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They are slightly looser than commercial puzzles but this was in plywood. It actually makes it easier to assemble (also puzzles aren’t usually this thick) so we can try in much thinner maple or other hardwood when I get a chance. They aren’t so loose that it feels cheap, but you can’t pick it up as one either…

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Thanks @henryhbk.

Perhaps for thicker stock one should make 2 cut-sets (checker style) for a tight fit. Would also be interesting to see how 1mm & 2mm cardboard works for puzzles. Could be fun.

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As a sheet the wood may not have been warped but as you apply heat and or remove material you can change the stress patterns goes from pre tensioned stored energy to released once some area is removed etc…

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