I have a friend that is looking for a Pro GF. Let us know how much and where you are located. Consider a new thread…for sale as well.
$4700. And I live in Indiana
Yes, depending on the thickness. If you bought the machine to cut very thin pieces, I’d actually say you should just use the cricut because it doesn’t burn like the GF or a laser would. You’ll get a truer product that way from a non-burning cut.
But can your cricut cut through 1/8" - 1/4" material? Doubtful. And if you’re not cutting 1/8" or 1/4" material or engraving, I don’t see then why you’d buy the GF?
I can pound finish nails into my picture frames with my 5 pound sledgehammer, but the tack hammer is way better at that. Just sayin that the tool should match the job needing to be done.
6 Likes
That’s a video i’d like to see!
1 Like
That’s one of my issues, it states it can cut up to 1/4” but no matter the setting it won’t cut through 1/4” walnut even at 100% power and very slow it just burns it. Very frustrating
I’ve cut a LOT of 1/8" walnut with no issues whatsoever, I have not yet cut 1/4" so I don’t know the settings.
Give that thread a try and use the file / settings on the Walnut. Many times a test cut like that is needed. Thinking back, the only things I’ve cut at 1/4" is poplar and MDF. They both cut fine, but did get crispy a bit.
I’m sorry that you’re running into trouble when trying to cut a material from another vendor. Glowforge Proofgrade material includes several materials available in 1/4" thickness which can cut through reliably when using default settings. You may be able to use Proofgrade settings as a starting point for experimenting with your material.
If you’d like to see the settings we use for a piece of Proofgrade material, here’s how:
- Open app.glowforge.com
- Open a design
- Choose the material
- Click a step in the left-hand column of steps
- Choose Cut, Engrave or Score to determine which setting you’d like to see
- Then choose “Manual” and you’ll see the default settings for that operation.
Another excellent resource is our how-to guide about Working With Manual Mode.
Note that materials vary widely, and the settings we use for Proofgrade material might not be safe or effective for a material with a similar name.
Since we can’t support material from other manufacturers, I’ll move this thread to the Beyond the Manual section of our forum as other community members might be able to provide you with advice for the specific material you’re using. Note that advice in this section is unsupported and is not reviewed by Glowforge.
2 Likes
Another vendor? It’s wood, God is the vendor. Oh and good luck getting 1/4” anything from the Glowforge website
Sounds like an upside down lens. think “cup side up”
I have done many projects using 1/4” walnut. I cut it single pass without any problem.
I dont recall the settings off the top of my head but i think it was about 135/full.
The walnut started as 4/4 rough that i resawed and planed to 1/4”.
Where are you shopping? 1/4" wood is available from tons of non-god, non GF vendors.
2 Likes
ya no kidding. that is pretty baddass right there. 5 pound sledge is NOT a small hitting surface. 
There is always a steam hammer 
set the height and you can pound them all in in one blow,
1 Like
True! I don’t have one of those in my shop.
Yet…
2 Likes
Works best with a real Glowing Forge 
You said “and I’m excited to try cutting 3/8” or even 1/2" with multiple passes, manually setting the focus deeper each pass".
How do you manually set the focus to go deeper with each pass? My software seems to only offer auto focus. I would appreciate any guidance.
You set this in the cut settings (side panel, where you adjust speed, power, etc.). You can manually tell it what height to focus that specific step on. So you could do a first pass with the auto height, then do another pass where it is focused at say .125" instead of auto.
1 Like
I am pretty sure I tried that and it still focuses after I click “PRINT”, but I will try again to just confirm
It will still do the autofocus in case any of the steps have the default ‘auto’ for the focus height (and it also uses this for a more accurate camera picture of the workspace. If the layer setting (in the side panel) is set to Auto for focus height, it will use the autofocus measurement. But, if you have manually typed in the focus height for that layer/step, it will use that to focus the beam for that layer/step only.
1 Like