I tried searching and couldn’t find anything, so apologies if this was brought up before. I’m curious about cutting bamboo, namely would I be able to cut around the stalk since the wood itself would be thin enough because it’s hollow? I figure it would work since we have the ability to track the cut on a curved surface.
I ran across this product and thought I’d easily be able to pull it off with my glowforge. What do you guys think?
That top slot would probably be doable but the material is limited to 1.5" depth. How tall is the bamboo? Curves are likely limited to the 0.5" focus. Cutting around the stalk by the feed and align capabilities might be an issue. Haven’t heard anything about whether such a feature would work on anything other than a flat material. If I remember it may also be limited to the Pro.
I’m not really concerned about the 1.5" depth (or length) since bamboo comes in all sizes and can be cut down, it’s just that was the best example I could find 
The .5" focus though, wouldn’t we be able to turn that with tracking and readjust? That was my understanding but maybe I’m mistaken.
They might be working on great things. But I do remember that when folks were talking about using the feed capability for a long sheet of rolled up paper it was pointed out that the capability is limited to the Pro. And none of the official discussions have mentioned non-flat materials for that capability. Just can’t say one way or the other.
Don’t know how easy it would be on a curved surface, but if the basic model doesn’t have the software capabilities to track the pattern itself there’s always the option of splicing up your pattern into multiple cut files. I remember following the beginning of the rolled up paper discussion @rpegg brought up, but I don’t remember the conclusion- was user-aligning multiple cut files a workaround? Or would the basic’s software not allow for that precise of an alignment between separate cut file geometry?
My memory is weird. I can usually remember a couple key words from any post which allows me to easily search Dan’s responses. Can’t seem to do that here and would rather not search every one of his posts in order. Since I can’t find the comment about the capability being limited to the Pro you probably shouldn’t take it as accurate. I do for sure remember that back in Oct Dan had discussed adding the rolled up paper feed and align capability to the hopper list.
You would need to do a bit of added manual cutting. There is the hole that the phone sits in, which is purposefully centered on the wall between two bamboo segments. That wall is cut down a bit further to provide a ledge to hold the phone aloft.
You may be able to go with only 1/2" total depth, but it seems like using a laser to ablate all of that wall (the one perpendicular to the cutting plate) would be a bit overkill. You could cut a few lines across the wall to form easily bent and removed slats in pretty short order.
I take it back. Remembered the word “alignment”.
Specifically talking about the S/W…
Yasssss thank you for that find!
Again, just parroting back what Dan said. Pretty sure there is no reason why it wouldn’t work in the Basic if it works in the Pro other than if Glowforge intentionally disabled the feature for marketing/sales reasons. The lack of a feed slot wouldn’t stop the S/W from doing the same thing if you could somehow roll up the stock.
If I was the marketing guru I would disable the feature to increase Pro sales.
Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for at least. But of course, like you said, this is all pretty much speculation until we actually have a 'forge to test it out on…aw man, I hope disabling features doesn’t happen!
If you can’t wait. This looks like it would be an easy job with a plunge router.
Or a dremel…
I was more so wondering if the glowforge was capable 