Hi. I am not sure if this is the right space for this. I want to engrave a design on a round bamboo cutting board that curves down the edge. I want to engrave so it goes down the edge. If I make my design slightly bigger and it goes past the board is that dangerous in anyway? Is this the right way to do it? I will need to remove the crumb tray and raise it up. I just do not want to damage the machine or anything bad. Thank you.
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Nope, the tray can take the abuse.
Oh… well, the bottom of your Glowforge is also metal and it can take the heat. If you want to be really sure, you could put down a layer of sacrificial material underneath, like a thin piece of wood with aluminum foil on it. The foil will prevent cutting through and the wood will insulate the base from any heat effects… but still I think the metal base of your machine should be just fine.
As for the edge-to-edge thing, yeah centering your material in an oversized engrave image is the way to go.
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It only will focus on a flat surface so the curved area will not look as good as the rest.
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Yeah, you can’t engrave around an edge like that, the laser focuses on a flat plane.
You won’t hurt the bottom of the machine with the tray removed for that same reason, the effective focal range is quite narrow.
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Sure you can, but the further you get from the focus plane the more diffuse the engrave will be. Depending on the radius of your turned edge it can look pretty good.
There’s only one way to be sure if @mrtoad likes it… and that’s to try it.
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Thank you all. I will give it a shot. Appreciate the help!
and it’s very dependent upon the amount of curve and how far from the surface it curves away. i’ve engraved off the edge of a stratocaster (still in progress, that’s why no pics yet) and i was happy with it. but it’s a quick curve and mostly doesn’t drop that far.
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Yeah that’s what I meant about the radius caveat. I know it’s early but I don’t suppose you took any detailed pics of the strat project edges or if you have any idea about the radius of the rounded corners yet?
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This is what I was going to say - round the edge or chamfer it a bit so it picks up some engrave.
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Yeah that looks great.
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yeah, and it just kinda “fades” as it goes around the corner.
now, the right elbow area of the strat body is a depression and there’s some minor difference there. it’s not super obvious if you don’t think about it. but if you know, you can see the engraving looks a little different. but i can live with it. i normally only do telecasters, which are flat, but this was a test body that i think we’re going to go ahead and finish because i liked how it turned out.
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That looks fantastic! Super daring as well!
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