How to cut a non proof materials?

Beyond the Manual
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I tried to cut an acrylic(thickness is 1/8) which is non proofmaterial, but I couldn’t cut it.
Does someone have a manual the way to cutting or engraving a non proofmaterial?

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Welcome.

Try searching for “acrylic settings”.

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Definitely search, but FWIW, I have no trouble cutting non-PG acrylic using PG acrylic settings as long as the acrylic is similar.

But what you really may need to know is that you can just enter in the settings manually in the Glowforge UI. (In which case, use @evansd2’s advice to find the right settings to start with)

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Welcome to our corner of the Internet!
Note that Acrylic comes in two “flavors” one is extruded and the other is cast. Proofgrade is all cast and much of the rest is cast as well but much is also extruded, especially if it has no branding on the masking. As it is made with a low enough melting point to extrude; the laser will melt through and then the melted sides will fuse back together. If that is happening you might want to save it for use with some other cutting method like a jigsaw.

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Welcome @kazukitsushima3221. Some more information will help. If it is 1/8" normal cast acrylic, it should cut fine using the default settings. Just start typing medium clear acrylic and use those defaults.

There are many reasons why you might not be able to cut through.
Do you have a Basic, Basic Plus or Pro?
What kind of masking does the acrylic have? And as @rbtdanforth said, cast or extruded makes difference.

Have you been able to cut normal Proofgrade stuff before?

Is the material dead flat?

As in the cut didn’t go all the way through (material problem or machine problem or settings problem? Or I couldn’t get it to make a cut line at all (design problem).

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Welcome!
If it is truly 1/8", you could try to use the same settings as the medium proofgrade acrylic, since it will be very similar. You can adjust from there.

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I moved your post to Beyond the Manual - that’s the only place we can discuss non-proofgrade settings

That being said: GF Settings Google Sheet this has so many settings :slight_smile: You’re likely to still need to experiment a bit, but this should get you started - with the caveats above about extruded vs cast

Good luck!

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