I have 1/4 Birch Plywood I would like to cut and was wondering if anyone has settings they have tried?
The last time I cut wood that was not proof grade (mind you I have had my glowforge for about two weeks) on the second pass through there was a brighter flame. Now I’m afraid of testing different settings!
I also tried to engrave a cutting board that was prob a bit too thick to be in the machine. I’m sure this is a common questions but does anyone know the maximum thickness you can engrave without removing the tray?
and also the best way to test new materials is to run this:
or something similar. Each piece of material is going to be slightly different. If you do a search here for “settings birch” you’ll get a bunch of different suggestions - so the fastest way to get a good answer for your piece of birch is to test it.
oh - and do a search for cutting without the crumb tray, there’s lots of advice on that too!
There should be many in threads for that material–have you tried searching for 1/4" baltic birch yet? (type that in the box with the magnifying glass/search icon). Personally I’ve not worked with it yet myself.
The flames may be a result of flash back that can happen if there is a gap between the crumb tray and the wood, so be sure to pin it down well (look for “hold down pins”–those help tremendously, and I cut mine from my scraps of med maple ply.
The head will be able to to go over it, but the air assist will hit it - so if you’re only engraving along the top edge - and you’ll survive if it bumps and fails - totes worth a shot. If you’re trying to engrave in the middle, it’ll definitely fail.
Honestly though, I avoided removing the tray forever cuz it was scary, but with set focus I literally just guesstimate and pile the thing on top of a few random pieces of wood and if the measurement fails I add another piece of wood. You’re trying to get the thing so it’s ~1/2" away from the laser. There are things you can cut which make it brainless, but I’m lazy that way
