I would like to engrave a charcuterie/cutting board for my niece for her wedding gift. I am looking for help on what settings to start with. I don’t really have the budget to fiddle around with this a whole lot since it’s like $30. So if you’ve had experience engraving one, where did you start with your settings?
Cheat. Do a small “signature” makers mark on the back side as a test to narrow down your settings.
As for where to start nobody’s going to be able to tell you for sure. I’d just search the forum for “hardwood engrave settings” and other combinations of terms like that.
That’ll get you going in the right direction. If you know the species of wood you can search like “maple engrave settings” as well.
The engrave setting can be dialed in if you start light and do a 2nd pass if necessary. The main thing, however, is that you are familiar enough with engraving things without the honeycomb tray so your alignment is the way you wish. If you mask, you can do an engrave that only marks the masking so you are certain of the alignment before committing to the entire engrave.
I did it! Thrilled with the results. I wrote out the instructions below for people like me who like clear instructions, and so I will remember what I did the next time I want to create this again!
I used 3 thick draftboards and 1 medium draftboards as my base.
Remove feet from cutting board.
Apply masking tape using a T Square ruler to make sure it is straight (this will serve as a guide for placing artwork straight on project).
Place cutting board in Glowforge.
Upload artwork.
Set focus over printing area in Glowforge app.
Set focus prior to placing artwork permanently as the dimensions may change when focus is set.
I used the following settings
1000 speed
70 power
340 lines per inch
And in the engrave settings I put auto on the material depth (for my rasterized images I chose vary power instead of convert to dots or pattern).
Place artwork making sure it is straight on cutting board surface. I used the edge of the masking tape as a guide. Since I placed it with a T square Ruler, the tape edge was a good level marker.
Click print in the Glowforge app and click the magic button in the screen.
really nice results. if I can I would like to make it easier for you. after you remover crumb tray and set up the board in there hit draft for engraving option and go. it works every time. !
Welcome to the forum.
Do you need help engraving a cutting board that is similar to these? The original poster elevated the board about 7/8" to get it into the focus range. Your experience my be different unless you are using the exact same product.
the answer is simple, you need to have your cutting board 1/2" away from the laser. since a cutting board is usually 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch it would hit the laser head – so you need to have it lowered under the laser, the trick is remove the crumb tray, and then 'build a platform" so the laser is 1/2" away (and it clears the board - a quick trick with the power off, move the laser head over the board, make sure the gantry / laser path is clear) people on here will give you a more ‘technical’ answer, I am sure…
!
