Help with .5" Maple Settings

Beyond the Manual
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I bought a piece of maple from Menards (from their pre cut cabinet pieces) It is .5" thick.
Want to make a small cutting board that is engraved. Has anyone engraved a .5" thick
piece of maple and what settings would be recommended? Seeing I am very very new at this the uncertified material warning scares me a little.

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No need to be scared. Try something like 1000/40 and if it isn’t dark enough just run a second pass.
Just make sure you don’t move it if you want to re run the engrave. Personally I usually start with 1000/60 but that also gives a fairly dark engrave and depending on the amount of detail you may want something a little lighter.

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Don’t let that scare you at all! It’s more of a , “hey did you know…” thing vs a “Stop, this is wrong!” thing. :slight_smile: @beerface gave you a good starting place for settings and his advice about not moving the material until you’re happy with the engraving is golden. As long as things aren’t moved, you can just run it again and it’ll align perfectly. (Don’t be fooled if it looks a bit off in the preview.)

Do you know how to remove the crumb tray for the tall material? If not, this diagram will help to understand how it works. Good luck with your project!

image

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I feel like the image is missing something in the “stuff stack”, like a chicken, or a small car.

I :heart: the image. I always find myself struggling to explain this. It’s one of those, “it makes sense in my brain, but my mouth doesn’t know” scenarios. :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

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I started to do it and the piece of wood moved so I taped the bottom to the crumb tray. After that I got freaked out. LOL. My design isn’t too complex so I will def try @beerface settings.

Thank you all for your input!

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When engraving only, the thickness of the material is not relevant unless the material is very thin. You can use the proofgrade maple hardwood settings and adjust from there.

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If it’s on the crumb tray and it moved it may be too tall and was hit by the air assist fan. You’re pushing the limit at .5 with the crumb tray in. Maybe for this thickness remove the crumb tray and try the auto focus. If it can’t focus on it then shim it up with something slim like a sheet of proofgrade. See that pic above that kittski posted.

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