I am brand new to laser printing. Can I use pine lumber or other lumber that is not Proofgrade? If so how do you trick the machine into believing it is proof grade?
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If you do not already have this chart. This is the best way to start to see if it has been used before.
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You can use other hardwoods and plywoods, but you want to watch burning soft woods like pine. They have a lot of resin that just makes a mess and will eventually gunk up the fan requiring you to clean it more often. And store bought plywoods tend to be a lot harder to cut…they generally have a lot of knots, glue plugs and voids that make it difficult to cut evenly.
The best alternative to proofgrade plywoods is generally considered to be Baltic Birch, since it has a better consistency. But you can still hit an occasional glue plug, and the cut will be incomplete there.
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Also pressure treated woods are full of chemicals. It probably(?) won’t hurt your machine but I’d be sure your ventilation is setup really well. No telling what nastiness you’ll be releasing.
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And you don’t want to use pressure treated woods for anything that would be used/placed indoors, since they can off gas those chemicals.
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What @Jules said, but I’ll add that an occasional engrave or cut on untreated pine is fine. You will have to guess and try on settings though.
Something I would have never thought of if they had not be in close proximity to each other. I’ve cut mini shims from a larger shim.
Thank you everyone. I’ll give it a try.