That’s not true. If you take the shipping box measurements & the weight, you’ll find that it is currently at the maximum allowed without turning into truck freight (at least in the U.S. with UPS & FedEx). Making the GF physically bigger would either require less padding in the shipping box or switching to freight shipping - both have substantial downsides.
I’d love it to be 12x24 but then I’d love it if my oven was 2" deeper so I could put two sheet pans in next to each other and make twice as many cookies at once (& recipes should be scaled by sheet pan size vs # of cookies so I don’t have a last batch with just 3 cookies on the pan wasting all the electricity to bake those last 3 ).
Keep in mind that 19 x 5 = 95 and 8 feet is 96 inches and a quarter inch kerf x 4 cuts gives you the added inch.
I have a pro and when buying plywood have it cut exactly so. With basic I would cut most pieces at 9x19 as that will do for most things and a wider piece at the bottom. That will make 25 pieces per big sheet.
Currently with the 12 x 20 material in place the camera is definitely not aadequate. I agree. What I meant was that the margins as we see it now should not be there at all. I can fit parts right to edge if I was allowed to and use less overall wood for a larger project.
The camera is not adequate for even the centered parts that I place so I can put an image on it. There are time when the image is off to the left or right or to the top by as much as 1/4". I have done 4 flasks back to back and using a jig setup have to make many adjustments to repeat the process. It is a good feature but it has its days of frustration.
I’d recommend you actually do a cost analysis here (if you haven’t already) to see how much money you’re talking about. When I did it, I realized I was getting riled about literal pennies. There is a definite breakpoint where its just not worth the hassle.
Of course the cost per square inch of material can vary widely, but even the high end of my costs was still really low.
Take baltic birch plywood, which I get for about $9 for a 5’x5’ piece. That works out to a quarter penny per square inch. So if I lose a 2" x 12" strip, that’s only 6 cents (!).
Now lets go with a higher end material: 1/8" cast acrylic from estreet, 12x24" for $6.35. That’s 2.2 cents per square inch. Losing that 2x12 strip is only about fifty cents.
Heck losing that entire 12x4" strip is still under a dollar. (of course that’s a nice scrap and can be used on other stuff, so that’s not a true loss.)
The bed accommodates 18" x 20" material, not just 12"x20". Sure, it can’t cut the extra 6" of material in the same operation but you can still utilize that dead space at the top/rear edge of the tray to maximize material use.
Go with an 18"x24" sheet and you lose no material if you utilize the front door.
Oooh, I didn’t know about this; can you please let me know where I can find those instructions? Mine is definitely off about 1/4 to 1/3rd of an inch from the top…
Original design bed size got fixed as a hardware thing. The usable area was a larger target that maybe didn’t get fulfilled as much as they would like, but it has increased over time.
Proofgrade was something that wasn’t even announced during the crowdfunding window. So having material available with those specific dimensions isn’t even part of the equation. There were early discussions before Proofgrade was announced about having to cut down standard 24" sheets and waste them.
They could have had the materials line always part of the plan, but I’d say the hardware/size constraints of the machine, especially with optical centering, were the driving forces.
I used to love that as a kid. My wife is disinclined to allow that anymore - salmonella I’m sure the odds are pretty low but the odds of getting the stink-eye are virtually 100% so no cookie dough in 30 years.
I can’t in good faith like this post… my wife makes cookie dough balls and likes to freeze them before baking. Then she gets mad and confused when a few days after freezing, there are less balls than when she put them in the freezer.
There’s a salmonella free cookie dough bar (yes, you’re meant to eat it like ice cream and in the same quantities!) at Ponce City Market in Atlanta. I think it’s called Batter?
).
I’m sure the odds are pretty low but the odds of getting the stink-eye are virtually 100% so no cookie dough in 30 years. 
my wife makes cookie dough balls and likes to freeze them before baking. Then she gets mad and confused when a few days after freezing, there are less balls than when she put them in the freezer. 
