Can't get glowforge to stop burning design

I’ve been trying to cut out ornaments on wood but either it will not cut through or it will burn up the snowflakes or sometimes it won’t cut through and still burn up the snowflakes. I’ve tried playing around with the settings but still can’t figure it out. Please any help?

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What wood are you using, and what design - if it’s your own can you upload it here?

I bought it off Esty and I’m using 1/8 inch Baltic birch from woodpeckers

You need to figure out what settings work for your material, then you can start printing designs.

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Ok, Baltic birch has definitely been used successfully so you should be able to use it. The problem of course is there are many grades of BB - some ab fab, some not so much.

I’d suggest holding a bright light to the back of your wood to verify if there are any voids/fills in it (they’ll look like black spots) - you’ll need to avoid those.

Then start with this test pattern:


The one picture is what it should look like if it would cut through and the other picture is what it is doing when it does cut through

That design is far too detailed to cut in BB. The beam is spending far too much time in close proximity to where it has cut previously, and causing the material to burn.

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So much this.
I would suggest you switch the snowflake section to a score and cut out around them. You’ll need to do this in an art program (Inkscape, etc.) or you may be able to pay the original artist to modify the file

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Either that or make it 11” tall and even then it might be a bit much

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There’sa good chance you can get it to work with 1/8 material. You will need to developed a test print for the thin sections though. Something that has a representative section but doesn’t take up too much space and prints fast. Then start reducing the power step by step and find the speed that makes it through for each power. Multi pass can help too. Be sure to keep track of your settings. I’ve got a space on my test prints to write the settings when they get finished printing so I don’t forget. Also, you’ll probably need to use a masking material of some sort. I usually use painter’s tape, but there are some professional laser masks that may be better for the thin cuts. Good luck!

I think 1/8 will still get torched.

Cardstock maybe but then you’re up against seklema mat trade offs. I still like the score plan best or just moving on to a more appropriate design for the scale you’re shooting for here.

Sometimes you gotta know when to walk away from even a good design if it’s just not appropriate to the laser.

I use the same exact product and I absolutely love it.
I also own the same SVG files.

If you want to print these snowflakes you will have to resize them. They are way too intricate for 1/8 birch at their regular size. I doubled and tripled the size.

Settings for Woodpeckers 1/8 birch.
Speed 150
Full power
Height .13

Make sure wood is completely flat.

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