Cleaning the Crumb Tray

[evansd2]

@eflyguy

a huge fire risk

I disagree. You need heat, fuel, and air in the correct proportions to result in fire. I think the conventional wisdom about fire risk underestimates the role that speed and cut proximity plays, A tightly sandwiched piece of cardstock will be very unlikely to ignite if your design and settings are correct.

We don’t even need to think too hard about this: Glowforge is notoriously risk averse, and their advice and PG settings are basically “hot and fast is best” and their design guidelines are roughly “not too close together”. Stick to that and fire risk is greatly reduced.

Don’t take my word for it:

Well THAT'S new

We thought about this, but found that the abstraction hid too much. There are significant differences between low-and-slow and fast-and-hot.

Dealing with Edge Burns

You want to go the fastest you can at the highest power possible to have clean edges. Speed will almost never be the limiting factor on your Glowforge, since cutting speeds are much slower than engraving speeds. We’ll optimize Proofgrade presets to minimize char so you don’t have to worry about it there. For your own materials, you want the highest power/fastest you can go while reliably cutting through.

@dan

Here’s the challenge: designs that concentrate lots of laser energy in a tiny space can lead to charring, discoloration, and material damage. Put another way, lots of tiny cuts make the material sooty. That can leave you with a mess instead of the project you wanted.

Even the great bogeyman of cutting cardboard being an elevated fire risk doesn’t really play out because Glowforge has a proof grade cardboard setting. They wouldn’t do that if it were a material that was just looking for a reason to catch fire.

Caveat: Your machine, your risk. Of course you should use your own judgment here but my experience does not support the idea that a piece of cardstock under your material presents any sort of elevated fire risk.