Engraving cutting boards

[creativedesignsbyjen]

I am trying to engrave a cutting board that is .625" thick. Is that possible or can you only engrave up to .5" thickness?
Can the crumb tray be taken out and engrave without it?

[Angie.C]

Since this question is regarding materials purchased from another company, we can’t offer support for prints that don’t come out as expected. Materials may vary widely from piece to piece, even if they’re created by the same manufacturer. I’m going to move it to Beyond the Manual so other folks here can help. Should any issues happen with a print on Proofgrade materials, please open a new ticket in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!

[evermorian]

There is a lot of discussion in the forums about how to go about this. You almost can’t miss with any obvious searches (e.g., "without the tray, " “thick material,” “cutting board”).

The short answer is: yes, you can remove the crumb tray and engrave on thicker items like that. The key is that you have to get the surface you want to engrave above where the level of the crumb tray would be. Put something under your cutting board to prop it up into that range. There are several designs in the Free Laser Designs category for supports, if you want to get fancy.

[deirdrebeth]

The Tips and Tricks sections has SO much information - it’s worth checking that out even if you just scan through the titles - because then you’ll know what’s in there for your next question

In this case this one will get you started:

Tutorial: How to cut without the Crumb Tray (Honeycomb)

Tutorial: How to cut objects too thick to have the honeycomb in place The GlowForge has a maximum material thickness it can cut through, but there is a maximum thickness you can even put on the honeycomb (crumb tray) even if you are surface engraving as the laser has a limited focus range of 0.01" - 0.4" *** above the surface of the honeycomb at the time of this tutorial. But let’s say you wanted to engrave something thicker that fits quite nicely inside the GlowForge but not with the crumb tray…

and if you’re a visual person…

[PrintToLaser]

Here is a tool to tell by looking if the surface of the work is within range. Stand it on the bottom without the crumb tray, and with the front door open look across the surface of your work to see if it is inside the area with the checkmark. Shim the cutting board up as needed to get there.
Use “set Focus” and the machine will do the rest.

[creativedesignsbyjen]

Thank you all! Your suggestions were very helpful!