HELP pls - thickness uncertified material

sourcematerials
#1

HI guys, I’m trying to cut a plywood of 80mm of thickness. I already cut bigger wood that this so I thought it wasn’t a problem really. The file is on illustrator so I’m uploading the svg. For a reason that I don’t get, I can’t change the thickness in the Glowforge app and even I went full power it didnt cut through. it’s stuck in 0.5 inches. What am i doing wrong?

#2

You are trying to cut something thicker than 0.43 inches (about 11 mm).
The spec is for 0.5 inches but it is really 0.43 or so.

#3

but am i going mad? in the specifications of the machine it says 1.3 cm the thickest it can cut. I’m trying to cut 0.8 and it’s not doing it…

#4

The max you can cut with the settings is 0.5 inches. So what you have to do is to remove the tray. Measure the height of the tray and when adding your wood (without the tray), it should have the height of the tray + 0.5 inches at the most. With this you will be within the range of the laser. Hope it helps

#5

If it’s over 0.5", you need to remove the tray. The trick is you still need to be in the 0-0.5" window on the surface you want to cut. Luckily, @newbies_234 made a handy calculator.

https://community.glowforge.com/t/tray-removed-calculator-updated/10927?u=joe

#6

Wait, 80mm is over 3"! I’d be surprised if the Glowforge can cut through that.

#7

The machine can work with material up to 2″ (50mm) but can only cut through 0.5″ (13mm) at most. The chemical composition of the material makes a huge difference. Some 1/4" (6.5mm) plywood cuts quickly; some 1/8" (3mm) plywood will mot cut at all.

#8

You said 80mm in your original post; that would be 8 cm. Was that a typo?

#9

sorry I meant 8mm, it didn’t cut Plywood of 8mm

#10

i made a mistake I meant 8mm…sorry

#11

No worries, it happens.

8mm should be able to fit without removing the tray. What kind of plywood are you trying to cut? Where did you get it from?
Supposedly, there are some glues that make a plywood harder to cut.

#12

Yeah, depending on the kind of plywood, 8mm (about 5/16) could be mostly uncuttable. (People have reported that 1/4" masonite laughs at lasers, for example).

You’ll want to set your thickness to 0.31 for good focus and positioning, and then do some tests. 5.5mm non-proofgrade ply cuts at about 130-135/full, so you might want to try 110 or 120, or 150-ish with two passes…

#13

It used to be 0.433 “. Some time ago the changed it to 0.5”. Though there has been a lot of discussion about whether it is just in the interface vs. actual focus.

#14

I bought some regular 1/2" plywood expecting it to cut but it is almost impossible. I eventually made a 1\4" wide engrave and just kept at it, even measuring the depth and changing the focus, and still had to finish with a jigsaw. In the end the cut is charcoal but I got the simple ellipse I was trying for but will not be trying again.

#15

I find it takes a 100W CO2 laser to be able to cut 1/2" play reliably. With all the different glues & layers in that thickness of plywood it’s really hard to cut. On a 40W you’d need lots of passes and it’s just gonna end up a charred mess.

#16

Yup it did that :frowning:

#17

The dialog where you enter the thickness of the uncertified materials is always in inches. If your material is 8mm, you’ll need to enter 0.31.

The rest of this issue are questions about materials that were purchased from another company, we can’t offer support for prints that don’t come out as expected. I’m going to move it to Beyond the Manual so other folks here can help. Should this happen with a print on Proofgrade materials, please open a new ticket in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!