GF settings for cutting 1/8 inch Baltic birch

Canada eh! There are no PG materials available in Canada and the import fees, HST, fedex fees and exchange rate make the purchase of these materials out of the question. I am using Baltic Birch and masking both sides. I am using the settings for medium basswood plywood and getting some nasty burn marks on the underside of my cut pieces. Is there a setting to use that will cut and not scorch the underside of pieces?

There are many, many posts in the forum regarding baltic birch, so I suggest you read through some of those. In the end, your best bet is to test your specific material with something like the test template file. Updated Material Test Template

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Or this much simpler method:

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As others have said, testing is the key. I’ve had great results using the settings for Medium Maple Ply as a starting place for generic birch ply from the BB stores. Real Baltic birch is stoopid expensive here in the states these days, so haven’t used it since last year.

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Testing is key, plus many other have also offered up settings in the forum (searching 1/8" BB or baltic birch will bring up a ton of results), I got most of my settings from here.

The place I ordered from gave glowforge settings for their wood, but I always had issues with it not cutting all the way through. I found that using PG Draftboard settings work best for my laser and the wood I’ve been purchasing. But every batch is different, so sometimes I have to adjust.

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I have been ordering this Baltic Birch from Amazon. Like dwardio. I too have had good luck picking the Maple Plywood as the material for cutting.

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I have to run slower than the default settings for any PG ply to get clean cuts on the BB I buy from my local Rockler. Cuts fine, though.

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Just curious, where are you looking for your Baltic Birch? In Los Angeles it runs about $11 a standard 5’x5’ sheet for 1/8” inch, and around $19 for 1/4” which is pretty darn cheap per GF sized sheet (15 GF sized sheets out of each 5’x5’).

A sheet of 1/8" BB near me (MA) is close to $30. But most wood prices are up right now. Have you looked recently?

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That’s crazy pricing! I just bought some more a week ago, same price as usual :thinking:
Also just checked Cherokee Woods which is a couple counties east of here and they’re pricing 1/8" full sheets at $16.

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Senior moment - I’ve been focusing on larger scale projects recently. 5x5 3/4” B/BB sheets (off you can find them) are prohibitively expensive for my purposes. I’ll agree that 1/8” sheets are much more affordable, but hard to make furniture with. :innocent:

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Whew! That certainly makes sense, 3/4" sheets are running about $60-85 for us.

@dobsky8006 I’m also cutting 1/8" BB at the PG Medium Maple Ply setting which works great 99% of the time as long as I keep my optics clean.

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Now, about those $6 2x4s at HD… :exploding_head:

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Do NOT buy wood at HD, it’s rubbish. :stuck_out_tongue:

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The 3/4" are $60-70. I’m still trying to find a better price for the 1/8". It’s still inexpensive when you cut it down, but $11 would be a whole lot better!

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:smiley: Definitely. Makes BB Ply cheap enough to prototype with and it’s so much nicer than draftboard/MDF.

That Amazon link further up in this thread is priced closer to $23/full sheet and comes to your door. (something like $69 for 45 GF sheets)

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Rugby sells 5x5’ 3mm BB (B/BB grade) sheets for about ten bucks. Of course it’s pandemic so the prices may be higher now, it fluctuates a bit.

Of course if you don’t live near a rugby then that isn’t very helpful.

@ChristyM they have a location in Stoughton…

Yeah, I haven’t been out there, yet. It’s a bit of a hike, and I think they have weird hours. They also compete with IKEA, but that’s another story. We have an Atlantic plywood much closer to home and I need to reach out and get their plywood prices. It’s not a priority because I have a good stash of wood and I’m not really using enough right now to stress over the cost. I think that will change soon, though!

What stor in Los Angelws?

Store in Los Angeles, sorry