Glowforge print area

What is the largest printable area on the Glowforge Basic.

Depends on what you’re doing.

Generally, about 11x19.5" is the max.

It can be somewhat smaller than that when engraving. Search the forum for it, there are lots of posts about this.

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For cutting, the limits are slightly less than 11" x 19.5". It’s safer to keep it to 10.8" x 19.3" so if you use that as a fixed limit, you won’t wind up having your files throw errors.

But…

For engraving at high speeds, your limits are significantly smaller than that on the sides. The head of the laser needs room to decelerate as it moves side to side, and the size you wind up with is based on the speed you’re using - the faster you go, the smaller the engravable area winds up being.

One of the resident experts did some limits testing on it a while back:

Please keep in mind that if you slow it down, you also need to reduce the power, otherwise you will wind up with a charred mess instead of an engrave. :slightly_smiling_face:

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In my testing it is 10.98" x 19.48" (or 279mm x 494mm) for cutting. As Jules says above, engraving is different.

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I took a piece of scrap and put ital the way to the edge of the crumb tray and down the front to where it was stopped. made a tall rectangle in inkscape and removed one side. then in the GFUI made it as big as possible and as close as possible to the right side limit and then cut out the scrap. that has become my measuring tool to drop in a piece that i need to use as much area as possible magnets and or pins then can be added and the measuring scrap removed

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Thanks for the assistance everyone! Currently, our work area allows for a:

  • Maximum material depth: 18" (455 mm) for Basic and Plus; unlimited for Pro
  • Maximum material width: 20″ (515 mm)
  • Cutting area: aprox. 11″ (279 mm) deep and 19.5″ (495 mm) wide
  • Maximum material height: 2″ (50mm)
  • Maximum material height with tray: 0.5″ (13mm)
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