I have Glowforge Plus and I’m going to take a 3D model and boolean it into the max thicknesses to make a 3D puzzle. I want to know if there is a list or if anyone has tested to see what the maximum thickness GFP can cut is. I have heard its .25 inches. Is this correct?
It depends on the material you plan to use.
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It also depends on your cleanup expectations. If you have the same “imaginary” material in both 1/16 and 1/2 inch the 1/16 will look pretty good but take a ton of cuts while the half inch material will lose a lot of detail but take very few cuts.
That said the price and ability of the material to stand up to deep cuts is what you are asking. as by definition you will have a lot of plys and a fancy wood surface will never show then Revolution Plywood would seem to be to me the ideal choice and as it comes as only 0.20 that thickness decision is already made.
You would have a larger range with Baltic Birch as it would be available in 1/16 to 1/2 inch thickness but cost more at any thickness. I believe you could cut 1/2 inch material but it would be a challenge.
Regular building plywood would become ash if you tried cutting more than 1/4 inch thick.
You could build in solid maple 1/2" thick and it would be hard to get through but it would not become ash.
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I cut 1/2” solid walnut, no problem.
I have “successfully” managed to cut 1/2 baltic birch. It took 6-8 passes to get all the way through and left black edges. I wouldn’t recommend trying to cut anything over a 1/4 inch if you are intending to make a profit from it.
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How do you guys cut 1/4th of an inch wood wise? I don’t have a saw that’s like a ham slicer to get the thinness of the wood.
Huh?
Use settings for similar 1/4" proofgrade material as a starting point, and test until you are happy with the results.
You mean milling your own wood? Run it through a planer? I’m confused at the question. 
I don’t have a planer.
I have been using the proofgrade materials that came with the Plus but I don’t have the money to buy a bunch more proofgrade materials for $7 each. I’m a small startup. I have a bunch of wood and other surfaces I would like to try but not sure how to try them. I don’t want my GF to catch on fire.
Do you engrave on other things aside from proofgrade, and if so, how did you first start to test things?
I have never bought proofgrade material. I just stick what I have in the machine and tell it to go. As long as you are standing there watching it (which is highly recommended), you shouldn’t have to worry about fire. I get wood from home depot or a local hardwood supplier.
And you may want to get a planer… There are some good ones that are pretty cheap for a hand-planer.
As I said above, use settings for similar proofgrade material as a starting point, and test until you are happy with the results.
There are a bunch of designs posted here (in Free Designs) for testing materials. They consist of sets of squares of different colors that you tell the GFUI to use different power/speed settings. There are cut ones and engrave ones.
You run the project on a piece of new material and then keep the resulting test piece as a reference to tell you what works & doesn’t.
If I’m doing a material that doesn’t have a similar PG version I’ll generally run one of these test projects. Alternately I will also just try some set based on experience or what someone has reported here (in the Everything Else category) & dial the power/speed up or down based on what I see.
I use this on all new materials. You have to watch in case it starts to burn but when it does that too is good data to know.
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