Hey folks! I’m relatively new to the community having only had my glowforge for a few weeks now.
So far I’m loving it and have made some great stuff with the sample materials that came with it. Afterwards, I’ve been struggling to find a source for materials that actually fit the Glowforge’s smaller bed. The proofgrade materials are great, though availability is a bit sporadic, and obviously shipping will be a bit much. Inventables is the same issue, plus they aren’t right sized.
I ordered a bunch from Trotec, but again, they’re all 12x24 boards/acrylic sheets, so I will have to cut them down (which isn’t easy in an apartment in Vancouver.
So I was wondering if there were any other folks in BC or Canada that have had experience with getting materials or having their materials cut down to fit.
For acrylics that are 1/8 inch / 3.2 mm or less you just need a utility knife and a straight edge. score the material on one side and snap it over the edge of a table or countertop. You can always use a cheap cutting board to protect the surface you’re using to support the material.
I don’t know how close you are to a Home Depot but they make plywood project panels of various woods in 1/4 and 1/8 inch thicknesses that are 12"x19". This is a little smaller than proofgrade, but I have found they fit the printable area of my Plus pretty well, and they come in packs of 10. I definitely recommend some Honeycomb bed holdown pins because the panels can sometimes have a slight curvature and the pins not only help achieve a flat cutting surface but also help consistently align the smaller sheets.
To practice I buy off-size acrylic cutoffs at a local acrylic distributor for cheap, but they are always larger than the GF bed size, so I usually have to make one or two cuts as described above.
As much as I score acrylic, even on both sides, the snap always goes of in a random direction ruining half the material and leaving a an unwanted section on the remaining half. What am I doing wrong? Any advice?
I go fairly deep with some good scores on both side. Then I put it against a door jamb and use the door as a press break. It works great to put the score right on the corner of a door and swing against it.