This is my second post so bare with the newbie questions!
The first question I have is there a way to reduce or eliminate the burnt edges of the backside of the cut part? The front looks fine as you can see in the pic below, the left part is the topside and the right is the backside:
I know that using masking would help, but is there another way, e.g., reducing power or increasing speed? Or something else?
Next (newbie) question, is it safe to have the laser beam hit the honeycomb tray if the image is not aligned correctly on material or if cutting through thin material (and yes I am going to do a calibration for the camera today)? How does the honeycomb tray not get at least engraved or minimally cut?
Finally is there a way to see the runtime of my GF to keep track of the runtime hours on my GF CO2 tube?
The iPad stand is a remix of some I’ve seen to use as a portable stand that could easily be kept in a bookbag, backpack for kids or students, or reduce clutter on your desk. By the way I already sold 2 of them, and the quotes are mine on the stand and the plaque.
This is called flashback. It’s the laser reflecting off the honeycomb and back into the material. Masking can help. Slightly faster, or slightly less power can help but increases the odds that it won’t cut through.
This indirectly answers your second question about laser hitting the honeycomb. It absorbs very little energy so it’s ok. But, you do want to regularly clean out any crumbs in the tray to keep the beam from hitting those.
It’s metal. The Glowforge can’t engrave or cut metal.
BTW, posting in Problems & Support opens a support ticket, so if you’re just looking for answers from the community, it’s better to post over in Everything Else so as not to slow down the support process for everyone else.
I thought I was having problems with my unit burning the backside of the material or that it may have been something I was doing incorrectly. That is why I posted in problems and support. Support being the operative word and problems being the questionable one.
But I can see your point with the rest of my topics in the post. Thanks for your input I will be more careful on where I post.
When I had that problem, it was because when I converted a bitmap to vector in inkscape, there was too much noise in the vector. The laser would cut as it should, but then it would go back to random points, along the edge and do multiple blasts. That is where the burning on the back occurred. I redrew the design using thicker lines, and Inkscape traced the bitmap without adding extra noise. Using that file, the cut was smooth, and there was no burning on the back.
