Bookmarked! (It’s an important moment)
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This is a great template but im not sure if im missing something. This is a cut template but you say we need to use the engrave settings? also these setting go from 190 down to 5, am i being stupid in asking if this is the engrave speed, as on my interface the max speed is 1000.
Sorry if this is a total noob question, but unfortunately this is what i am and any help would be appreciated.
Thanks all.
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I have a slightly different question - have the allowable settings changed in the last 10 months? I can’t get the GFUI to let me choose less than 100 for a cut speed…
They went to arbitrary units so everyone just refers to settings as zooms and pews. And yes, 100 is min. for zooms.
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Just got my GlowForge up and running today. I realize that the settings have changed from the time that this was created. I’ve downloaded the Google Sheet that would allow for me to compute the new values.
Several questions: This is a cut template so why does the author suggest engraving speeds? If you use 190 IPM to create the new value, it amounts to 586 which is above the maximum speed for cutting. Am I interpreting something incorrectly?
Yeah that’s on the old scale. Need to use different numbers now.
I understand that there is an old scale and a new scale. What I don’t understand is why when I use the Spreadsheet provided by GlowForge to compute the old numbers to new numbers they don’t match up.
i.e. The fastest speed suggested here is 190ipm. When I plug that into the spreadsheet, it shows me that when using the new values that number would then be 586. A speed that is not available for cutting.
Couple of ideas:
- It’s probably too fast to cut through over about 500 on the Glowforge scale.
Cutting is slow, engraving is fast. The longer the beam is in contact with the material, the more material gets ablated and the better chance of cutting through it.
- Those might have been the settings for the K40 and @jamesdhatch was just sharing the file to show how to set one up.
We can just ask him. He’s around. 
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Nope. 190 used to be available. With the changeover it’s not. The new values are non-linear so it’s not particularly surprising that there are settings we can no longer achieve. In redoing the test I’d go with 500 - and probably want to double the # of steps because of the non-linearity and the difference between 100 and Full power. There’s a fair chunk of power that’s available only in one big step because the 0-100 is the same on Basics & Pros. The difference between 100 & Full on a Basic is going to be less than the difference on a Pro - for instance if 100 is 39W then a Basic Full is only 1W more but a Pro Full will be 6W (6X the Basic delta). That’s a big step that will make big differences in power delivered at various speeds.
Is there an updated Cut Calibration Template somewhere?
I’ve been off the forum (and not using the GF either) for the better part of a year, so I’m probably missing a great deal.
I"d like to know also.
Here’s an updated version of the one I made last year. This one is setup for the new power speeds.
There are more gradations on the slower end because the speeds are not linear e.g. 200 is not twice as fast as 100. Most of the settings I use tend to be either fairly large (25 or 50) differences on the top end or smaller differences in the bottom end speeds.
Cut one out for each material you have and you’ll have a handy set of known speeds. You can also calculate the kerf from the size of the square cut outs with a set of calipers.
Just set it up in your GFUI and set the power to Full and speed per the label next to each color. With the new autosave feature in the GFUI you only need to do that once.
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June 24
Here’s an updated version of the one I made last year. This one is setup for the new power speeds.
There are more gradations on the slower end because the speeds are not linear e.g. 200 is not twice as fast as 100. Most of the settings I use tend to be either fairly large (25 or 50) differences on the top end or smaller differences in the bottom end speeds.
Cut one out for each material you have and you’ll have a handy set of known speeds. You can also calculate the kerf from the size of the square cut outs with a set of calipers.
Just set it up in your GFUI and set the power to Full and speed per the label next to each color. With the new autosave feature in the GFUI you only need to do that once.
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I’m trying to cut these so I can stop cursing at my GF when the cut doesn’t go through on non PG material.
When I try to set anything below 100 speed and still use full power, it defaults to 100. I’m using a Plus. Numbers are not my forte to begin with and a lot of the terminology is still foreign to me so when put together, I’m completely befuddled.
I assume I need to lower the power once I go below 100 speed, but I don’t know in what increments to lower it. Can someone offer advice?
Thanks
Welcome to the forum.
I think it would depend on what material you are trying to cut - but definitely you don’t want full power at speeds lower than 100 because you are concentrating too much energy in the same place for too long a time. You are asking for a fire. For most materials, changing the power in increments of ten and doing about 4 different squares is going to help you dial in optimum settings fairly quickly. However, if you are cutting paper changing power by 5 or less would have an impact. Don’t change power and speed both, or you don’t know why something worked. In general, I start with proofgrade settings for a similar material and adjust power by 10’s until I get a good cut without extra char.
I have noticed when doing my uploads that if you try drag & drop or attach a SVG file it looks like this when posting. “”
Note: Not including the " on either end, used to prevent creating an actual link.
And it tries to upload and displace a photo.
If you get rid of the ! no matter the file type it should link the file as a downloadable. This removes the requirement to Right Click & Save as.
Just a FYI that I have noticed from trial and error of my two uploads.
Oh that’s fascinating - yeah, much easier then telling folks they need to right click to save - I will attempt to remember do both because I like looking at the thing before I download it.
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Thank you. I was merely going by the OPs template of "Just set it up in your GFUI and set the power to Full and speed per the label next to each color. With the new autosave feature in the GFUI you only need to do that once."
Right now, I’m trying to cut 1/4" Baltic Birch and I tried some settings (135/100 maybe?) that someone mentioned in one of the millions of posts in the Community, but it didn’t cut through whatsoever. So, before I do any more total board wasting, I wanted to cut the template and gauge what I need.
The proofgrade is great, but it seems very expensive by comparison to what else is out there and it being in stock seems to be an issue, too.
Perhaps, I need to scour the Community some more in search of a different cut calibration template. The only other one I saw seemed very intricate and I didn’t know how to cut/print it.
This was made a long time ago when Glowforge used a different scale for speed.
Here is a small file for test cuts that works for lots of people. New material cut test method
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