Glowforge Cutting but Not Engraving

[info-tec]

No longer an issue. Cannot get the post deleted.

[Xabbess]

Welcome to the community.
Two things to try; make sure the power setting for the engrave didn’t default to ‘1’…which will do nothing. Make sure you don’t have two layers on top of each other for the engrave portion…they will cancel each other out and again…do nothing.

[eflyguy]

What are you engraving (file type) and what setting are you using?

I have uncovered what I think is a bug and GF refuses to pursue the issue. In my case, HD Graphic for BITMAP only appears not to work at all, although testing on Proofgrade which has masking revealed a very, very light engrave was indeed happening, but not enough to mark the material.

Here's a weird one.. (solved)

Cliff Notes: HD Graphic for bitmap does not fire laser. Vector works fine, which is what had me confused. The back story: I’m trying to engrave a design. I ran some tests on my material (mahogany veneer) and chose PG Walnut Veneer HD engrave. It looks good, and the finished item will be coated in polycrylic. The tests look fine, but the main design is not marking the material. As my tube is on the way out, I thought perhaps its time had come, but I ran the test again and it’s still working fi…

[info-tec]

Interesting!

We actually nailed down after this that it is a specific file that isn’t working. It’s strange because it’s a file we downloaded from the GF Catalogue.

[eflyguy]

I don’t think everyone has the same issue I uncovered. Another owner took my information and used the same settings and had a different result.

It’s a weird one (as per the thread title) but I was able to work around it. Machine still does it today.

[info-tec]

UPDATE:

It is a specific file that is not working. I made sure the settings were appropriate (thick maple plywood) and it isn’t that the settings are low, just that the laser isn’t firing at all.

Regardless, it was a file we downloaded from the GF catalogue which is why we expected it to work, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the device so we’re all good!

[eflyguy]

When you click on “ENGRAVE” below the step that appears not to be working, a window will pop out showing which specific engrave setting it is using - what does this one say?

[info-tec]

I understand what you’re asking, but I went through every type of engrave and the issue was the same.

[eflyguy]

That is odd. Glad you figured it out.