Did PG settings just change for acrylic?

Beyond the Manual
#1

I’ve been using Chemcast acrylic using the relevant PG settings with success for several weeks (“thick PG acrylic” for this particular piece).

…this morning I just ran a file using a piece of acrylic I’d cut before, so I know that the PG settings were successful on this exact piece of material six times in the past.

The laser nearly set fire to the paper mask, didn’t cut all the way through, and moved MUCH more slowly than usual. Seems like significantly reduced power and travel speed combined for a terrible result.

Has anyone else noticed a sudden change in PG acrylic cut behavior?

#2

Yeah, they switched a few things around a couple weeks ago, but don’t ask me to find the announcement again…I probably couldn’t.

Might need to run a few more tests to reset your power and speed. Or try using the Draft settings.

#3

Yesterday I tried to find an archive of their announcements that aren’t in the Announcements category. I could only find the latest and that from a link in Problems and Support. Not sure why that isn’t a part of the website.

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#4

The official stuff posted by Customer Service gets listed here on the main website:

(And I had to go hunting for that the other day to answer a question.)

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#5

Not dated but they all go here:

#6

Beatcha that time! Doesn’t happen often. :wink:

#7

Flux capacitor was low on oil! :joy:

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#8

This is precisely why I don’t use PG settings for anything. It’s a shortcut…until it’s not and you ruin a cut because GF yanks the rug out from the server side.

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#9

For possible future searchers, PG “thick” was apparently changed to 115 speed/Full power, which is not correct for commercial 1/4" Chemcast (burns the mask, can’t cut through)

Cut at 120 speed, Full power (Basic) and you’ll be back to where you were.

Not much difference in numbers, but huge difference in performance.

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#10

thank you! wow I wish this would be something they’d tell us about in the release notes.

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#11

It appears on the Dashboard of the app. Right hand column. They don’t wait for formal releases to let us know what’s going on. :slightly_smiling_face:

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#12

The settings I have recorded from 3-4 weeks ago show 115 speed/full power for basic on thick acrylic.

Did you have a different recorded value, since you said it changed?

#13

Huh, I’ll have to keep an eye out. I’ve never noticed they put in any changes to settings there, I only have ads for referrals and a note that they added metric.

#14

Scroll all the way to the bottom and click Whats New? to get the Latest Updates. I’ll have to remember that.

#15

The heading on the adding metric that you mention is “Latest Improvements”. That’s where they notify us of changes before they become final. We were notified of the changes to the settings several weeks ago, but they tend to leave them in place for a couple of weeks in case folks want to record the values before they change them.

Here is the writeup on that one…I did manage to find it on the Improvements page:

(oh, you know I just thought of something - that one dealt with engrave settings…I don’t know if cutting settings changed or not.)

#16

Thanks for finding it. Nothing in that would indicate to me that the cut settings changed. I see you updated at the same second, haha. Anyway, more (official) information would be helpful, this is marketing and breezy and nothing there tells me “pay attention, something you think you know how to do is different today!”

#17

Didn’t have a recorded value – just went to cut 1/4" Chemcast (using thick PG clear acrylic settings), and the masking nearly caught on fire while at the same time not cutting through.

The exact same settings, used on prior occasions, produced perfectly fine results on the exact same piece of acrylic (I mean literally the same chunk, not merely “the same material from the same supplier”, literally the same physical hunk of plastic).

…with some testing, I was able to get the same results as on prior occasions by using 120 speed, Full power.

Not entirely sure when the change happened, but something definitely changed if the same settings, on the exact same piece of material, nearly produced a fire when it had not done so before.

It’s weird.

(it’s also kinda nifty that " 5 extra speed" can make such a big difference)

#18

I only see one change made over the past year, at least for the Pro. In which the speed was actually increased.

Interesting.

FWIW, the difference between 115 and 120 is 9.6 inches per minute and 11.5 inches per minute.

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Need slightly more cut through... any advice?
#19

I have a whole slew of .210 chemcast. I accidently left it on thick acrylic and it did the burn on the masking. Couldn’t figure out what was the deal. Used to not be an issue. Now it is. 120 zooms and full pews and it works fine.

#20

This is just anecdotal support, but I went and checked my settings for old projects using thick acrylic and I also had 120/full speed. Hadn’t noticed it had changed to 115/full. (I take off the top masking when using acrylic so hadn’t noticed any burning.)