Cutting large (11") circle

I’ve had my Glowforge for a few months and it’s way exceeded my expectations. However, I just tried to cut a circle that’s nearly 11" in diameter out of 1/8" birch plywood and the beginning and ending cuts didn’t match up. It missed by about 1/16". Is this to be expected or is there something I need to calibrate or adjust? Thanks!

No, not expected; it should match up. Also 11" is just a tad larger than it can actually go in height, so I’m not even sure how you managed it!

I’d say go over to the support site and look up “squaring your gantry” and run through that procedure, in case it’s not quite square and that’s what caused it. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thanks for the reply! I was just about to add to my original post, that the circle cutting was after a significant amount of engraving on the surface (I’m making a clock face). Could all of the back and forth with the engraving thrown the gantry off?

Not if everything’s working as it should. This is a solid machine with excellent precision.

Check and make sure there’s nothing on your belts or rails that might have made it skip during the engrave. I would think that could account for a 1/16" miss on the circle. Did the engrave have any unexpected gaps or anything?

No, the engraving is excellent. I just went through the gantry squaring process and cut another circle of the same diameter from cardboard. It came out perfectly! My Glowforge can sit idle for days at a time and since the gantry squaring procedure is so simple, I’ll be sure to run through it more often. Thanks for your help!

1 Like

I just did 18 10.9 inch circles in 1/4 acrylic and they all came out perfectly, so there is something not quite right in your case.

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve hit this snag, but I’m glad that the advice @geek2nurse provided in regards to “Squaring” your gantry helped to resolve the behavior you were seeing.

I’ll close this thread for now, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at support@glowforge.com in the future if you run into any more trouble. We’re here to help!