Tell that to my magnets. If I’m not careful it still happens. It’s better than it was but then I also don’t use my strongest magnets much anymore nor do I put them in the back of the bed where it really caused the most trouble. It’s hard to say if it happens less due to my changed workflow or the software changes.
Either way it’s not 100% safe to use magnets.
Beyond that magnets can mess with the autofocus and other head components. Someone had their GF stop functioning because a magnet jumped and attached to the head. So use your judgment out there, magnet peeps.
While I appreciate your input, I have already done and or investigated all you mentioned…Cricut Maker, ridiculous for anything other than the average crafter…Die cuts…not sure where you get them but custom dies are quite expensive in comparison…I know, I’ve purchased them along with machines to use them and they are more than labor intensive as well, you are also very limited in size…
As far as magnets go…I am pretty sure my map magnets and the ones that I use which are NOT strong and less than 1/2 inch in diameter and about 3/16th thick are not going to be a problem…never had one “jump" anywhere…most of the time the fan knocks some of them over…
In short, the Glowforge is exactly the machine I need…
Far from being resolved, the speed detection merely identified the problem and pointed out several others that were more subtle. The complex relationship between electricity and magnetism is well known and it does not take a lot of imagination to see the problems. Basically moving any electronics rapidly through a strong magnetic field is a bad thing and thus you need to avoid having the field, Not having the magnets is one way, but if you must have magnets they need to be well shielded. If you can detect the field at the height of the Laser head it is too strong.
I was using them all the time and now use bed pins as much as possible. and only the ones I bought with a thick steel shield otherwise.
As others have noted, layers, in general, are a bad thing as fires are more easily started between the layers and how much air sits between the layers will also change the height, and cut each layer differently, while air movement will move the bits around messing up the difference in height and even location. You need to watch it like a hawk to prevent fires, but even having the smoke ignite for a few seconds, means it will not cut as deep at that location.
If you are doing volume production a number of sticky mats doing one layer at a time can be faster and cleaner with less risk than trying to do many.
Oh I’d never reccomend a Cricut or any craft store type dies/tool for this kind of work. I meant the type of dies used in manufacturing - with a thin steel blade embedded in a wooden backing piece. Mine were from a a local manufacturer and cost around $40 for a custom piece around letter size and I just used a $50 Harbor Freight arbor press along with some scrap steel and an old plastic cutting board to use them to cut leather. Now that I think about it, the wood backers are laser cut and the steel blades are pretty easy to come by. I’ll have to explore using GF to make the die itself.
There’s a guy on Etsy making small custom ones for $22
I think what you are making and I am are pretty different beasts even though they sound similar…I sell my quilt kits retail as well as wholesale and need fast solutions and thats far from it, its also very cost prohibitive…this design when placed as shown is 23 x 25 inches. I cannot get dies that size nor a machine to cut them and steel dies are far more expensive that some of the other etched dies I have had made…Doing it this way would mean I had to purchase dies for 20 different pieces…I introduce more than 40 new quilts a year along with other appliqué projects so this would never work for me. I am looking at having them done in bulk as that would be the most cost effective for me, but on the occasion I need to do them myself, what I figured out will work for me. I will be cutting today and will let you all know if I have any issues. I think the prep is key, and my magnets are hardly the kind that will cause my unit to stop workin, I use very small, weaker magnets and map magnets…most of the time the fan knocks some of them over to be honest. (I have really bad arthritis in my hands and can’t get the strong ones apart!..lol)
In short, I have been a designer for many years, working in the gift industry, designing 3D product as well as licensing flat art. I have tons of connections for things like this and have been able to explore a ton of options.
I was working as an engineer for a life-raft and life-vest maker and they were using steel cutting dies that did a hundred strong nylon life-vest layers at a punch that were about 24"x 30" but the presses were pretty substantial That was where I first heard of the Gerber cutting machines that could do several inches thick at a shot and were an ancient ancestor of Cricut and Glowforge and a megabyte of memory was a “bottomless pit”. We did not get one as the idea of computers was so strange and the only computer was a guy in accounting had a personal Mac. in a company with maybe 1,000 employees.
While there I bought a commodore 64 and used it to design life rafts.
