While working on some chipboard settings last night, I got some results that absolutely did not make sense to me: cut settings that worked fine for a small object failed to cut through on a large cut. (This is in BTM because I have to discuss non-PG settings.)
Here’s the test object, 0.050" black chipboard. This shape is about 5.5" x 8.5". Ignore the engrave tests on the material, this is about cutting.
By cutting test 0.5" circles I figured out that this stuff cut nicely at Speed 500, Power 100. Then I let 'er rip on the larger piece, the 5.5" x 8.5" journal cover in the photo, including the small holes for comb binding.
Well, all the binding holes cut through. Those small pieces dropped free. The long outer cut did not cut through. It wasn’t even close.
The material was dead flat, I did enter the material height correctly, and as this occurred repeatably on a large piece, I do not think that the red ranging dot missed the material on every run.
You might think that it’s the “corner effect,” we know more power gets put down in corners… but a half-inch circle also cut cleanly at 500/100. No corners!
Tonight I plan to cut concentric shapes to see if I can quantify this result.
This isn’t expected, right?