I’ve been making beard combs for about a year now. It used to be, laser engrave with my 2.8w jtech laser diode, then mill the shape with a 1/16" down spiral bit, all on the cnc machine. Then sand. Then 3 to 4 coats of shellac. It was about 30 minutes of hands on time, 30 minutes of machine time. That was a lot of work for $12 each.
With proofgrade thick cherry plywood, its 12 minutes to engrave and cut, package, ship.
When figuring in time and extra material for finishing, you just can’t beat proofgrade.
I see so many people try to use proofgrade as a negative when comparing the glowforge to other lasers. I was skeptical when it was first mentioned, but I LOVE the stuff. Not to mention I get better photo engraves on PG maple ply than pretty much anything else out there.
I don’t understand why people criticize Proofgrade. Many of the other “laserable” materials that are sold by other companies (e.g. Johnson Plastics) are similar in nature–plywood veneer with MDF/particle board core.
Because people are spreading untruths and misconceptions: stating that you have to buy Proofgrade and use that; stating that the warranty is only good if you cut Proofgrade (which in fact is the complete opposite; PG offers you an additional level of warranty that no other manufacturer does).
Nice! Fantastic turn on productivitely & profit on a great item.
But I hope your time includes cleaning the soot off the combs–bad enough getting soot on fingers, let alone in one’s beard! (I use soft toothbrush & rinse w/ tap water–helps soften the masking & makes it easier to get that off, too!).
And I really like the proofgrade plywood, too–so far really just loads of signs for my booth, but also an element for some of my leather bags…
If you’d like to share them, you can always link to a post or writeup in the BTM section. (Several of us do that, and they get just as much traffic there, if not more.)
And wood does come out a lot cleaner from the GF than leather–so comparatively little cleaning (so used to doing leather & cleaning it, forget wood is easier). But bit of water OK provided you don’t let it soak in!
I’ve been too cheap to buy extra tape just to remove the masking–but it’s a great tip–esp. w/ small details–but a bit of rubbing & using bits of the masking you’ve already pulled off works, and no extra $ involved. Suppose if I was doing more for production pieces like you are, it’s indeed worth getting the tape to save the time!
