HELP with 1/16th acrylic settings

I have not been able to find an answer, i am trying to cut 1/16th inch acrylic and the settings are listed, however no one mentions the thickness to set the 1/16th acrylic at since you can’t type in fractions only decimals. Does ANYONE have that information???

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0.0625 inches. :slightly_smiling_face:

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You can also use “set focus” and not have to enter thickness at all, the GF will figure it out with it’s sensor.

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For the future, if you need to do this for any reason, you can open a browser window/tab and type “1/16” or “=1/16” and you’ll get a browser page with the answer in decimals. The browser can do all sorts of conversions too, like inches to mm or lbs to kg, etc.

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For future reference 1/16 is the same as 1 divided by 16. That is what / symbolizes.
Using any calculator you will get 0.0625".
However…just use “set focus”. Let the machine do the math.

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Sarcasm… always useful for the uninitiated or the novice

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I have never used set focus so I’ll try that. Thanks for the actual helpful advice instead of poking fun like others did :+1:

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Just to be clear, several people helped you - one gave you the precise decimal you were looking for without any other comment, and one other suggested the set focus. In general, this is a helpful place to get answers.

Since this isn’t really a problem or support issue for Glowforge support personnel, I am going to move this out of this category.

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Set focus is the go to for me. I don’t measure my material except for designing things where I need slots to be tight etc.

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I always just chose the proofgrade material in the search bar when wanting to cut. I will definitely be using set focus from now on!

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I never use that because I haven’t used proof grade in years.

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Thank goodness for this, because I’m awful with numbers and have to use my browser to figure things out all the time!

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You actually can type in the fraction.

Just type, “1/16 in”, and it’ll get converted to 0.0625 automatically for you.

But as others have mentioned, it’s often much easier to use “set focus” and not worry about setting the width of the material.

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Set focus works so well, it’s ‘almost’ always what i use. And, I found a source on the internet and printed off the conversions of many of the decimals because my mind just doesn’t think that way:-)

Welcome!!!

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Alternatives when you don’t have your hands free:

“Hey Siri, what’s 1 divided by 16?”

“Alexa, what’s 1 divided by 16?”

“Hey Siri what’s 35 mm in inches?”

“Hey siri what’s the internal angle of a regular pentagon?”

And so on.

Oh and “hey siri, can you beatbox?”

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Okay, you got me with the last one. I’d just never thought to ask, and I ask some weird ¥®¥} during my daily commute.

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A good takeaway here (uncalled-for rudeness from eflyguy aside), is that you don’t need to use the set focus tool unless your material is so small in area (not height) that the red dot focusing laser misses during autofocus. Put another way, your Glowforge will take care of focus for you in the vast majority of cases.

Best of luck!

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See, this is the problem with the internet and society, today. People are so quick to criticize and belittle, without knowing what one’s story is…. The only problem, it only makes them look ignorant…. Maybe giving someone a hand, instead of verbal attacks could work a little better… just a thought.

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Actually the set focus is a way better choice than 1/16 since that is a nominal dimension not a measured dimension. For a dovetail type joint in CAD the nominal is sufficient but for the Glowforge use set focus since that is exactly what the Glowforge needs to know. The other approach is of course to use a set of digital calipers. I am always surprised at the very wide range of thickness of acrylic (the manufacturer will normally tell you the dimensional tolerances which can be +/- 10%) so the fractional calculation while true isn’t as useful here.

What I don’t know (and only @dan can tell us) is if you’re using proofgrade does the sticker tell the Glowforge the measured thickness from the factory? For the record I use the regular medium acrylic settings on 1/16” which I used for barn signs and it works perfectly well (I do change the color as I assume there is some difference based on the dyes)

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Excellent example of my point!

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