Help engraving on wood

[pamecakes]

Help with settings??? I am new to this!

I am trying to engrave on a piece of wood 3/4" thick bass wood?
I removed tray… do I have to raise up more?

Can anyone help with settings? I only have 1 piece of wood.
I appreciate!!
Pam

[beerfaced]

Yes you have to raise the surface to somewhere less than .5 inches from the laser. If you have something 1 inch thick that will work to prop up your 3/4 inch board.

[eflyguy]

Here’s an option to help you check, and set, the height of your material.

Presenting the Focus Height Ruler (colonial edition)

(10/23/'20 Edit - I added a double-sided version here.) I present for your consideration - the Focus Height Ruler (cubic Smoots per Wiffle version, I might do a metric one later…) [image] FILE IS HERE → focus height ruler.svg.zip (6.9 KB) (Three steps - Engrave the numbers, Score the lines, & Cut) As focus height should be entered above where the crumb tray bed should be, this can be handy for determining that measurement when the bed is not there - or just to check your material thickness…

[pamecakes]

Thank you

[dklgood]

Welcome to the forum.
After elevating the wood to the proper height, I suggest you start your settings with the Proofgrade basswood settings. In general, it is necessary to test materials until you get the engrave settings that best suit your goal.

Since you state that you are new to this, may I suggest that you do quite a bit of reading here in the forum and utilize the search function to find answers to many questions that you will have.

[ivan1]

It’s great to see that you’ve already received some excellent suggestions from our other community members. Thanks folks!

As they’ve mentioned, you can print on objects up to 2" thick by removing the crumb tray. However, your Glowforge can’t focus too far down, so you may need to put something laser-compatible underneath your material to lift it up. Raise it until the top surface of your material is between 1.5" and 2" (50 mm) high, measured from the metal plate on the bottom.

Our community has developed some great Tips and Tricks, and this illustrated guide might be just what you need. Please let us know how it goes!

[rbtdanforth]

@pamecakes

Can anyone help with settings? I only have 1 piece of wood.

You need more pieces of wood. Fortunately, basswood is both common and inexpensive. You can even find it in such places as Menards, or Ace Hardware as well as places more focused on just wood.

If you are looking to do 3d relief carving, you will need lots of practice pieces and while basswood is not as bad as some, going deep like 3/8 or so will push the downwind side a lot in the direction of charcoal.

[ivan1]

We’ve recently announced that we’re switching the “Problems & Support” section of our forum to “Community Support”. Since you started this thread to have a conversation with our support team, I’ll be reaching out to you very soon via email so that you can continue to work with our support team directly.