I’ve cut the design on draft board just to make sure it would look right. It cut through great. So I cut it on 1/8" Birch and setting medium cherry hardwood full/200 and it didn’t cut through in one spot so I tried cutting it again same thing but different spot. So now I’m going to try it again but with 2 passes. What would the setting be for that?
So if I understand, the same design cut on different spots of a board is having problems cutting through at different points in the design?
Where did you source your material? Some of the wood I use has glue voids/issues that sometimes cause problems. I usually take an sharp knife to the back or some sand paper.
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Glowforge only provides support for cutting Proofgrade materials, and they don’t sell a Proofgrade birch. You can ask for help cutting other materials in the “Beyond the Manual” section of these forums.
Baltic birch, and many other birch plywoods, will have voids and other defects in the core of the wood. When the plywood is assembled, these voids get filled with glue, which is too dense for a Glowforge to cut through. When your cut lines pass over one of these defects, you get “it didn’t cut through in one spot”. This is a material problem, not a machine problem, so changing your settings won’t fix it.
You can find these dense spots in your wood before using it by holding a bright flashlight up to the back of the wood in a dark room. You can then circle them and avoid laying a cut line over them.
Or, to not have this problem at all, buy only MDF core plywoods like Glowforg sells, or other known good laser materials.
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We cannot discuss settings for non proofgrade materials anywhere but in the Beyond the Manual category. Since you are asking for settings, I will move this post.
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