Is the Proofgrade Sticker Laser Safe?

I’ve cut and cut and cut out of a piece of Proofgrade and what’s left is the corner with the :proofgrade: sticker left. Can I cut the sticker? Should I remove the sticker prior to cutting? Does cutting the sticker change the depth of the overall cut?

7 Likes

Might noticeably affect an engrave if it’s subtle. Shouldn’t affect a cut in any significant way on wood or plywood. The sticker is on the masking so it should peel off OK without residue.

9 Likes

Would be priceless though if the sticker isn’t laser safe on proofgrade materials.

10 Likes

All of mine eventually get chopped up. Believe me if they weren’t that would have been in the manual (and especially for us PRUs since it is THEIR laser we are cutting in…

5 Likes

I’ve had them ruin engraves but doesn’t affect cuts much. yes, safe.

1 Like

Maybe you should have told the Glowforge to engrave the qrcode into the material while it was still stuck on, then you wouldn’t lose it… :smirk:

5 Likes

I haven’t played with proofgrade yet, but it seems to me you could flip it over, so the sticker is on the bottom.

1 Like

great idea! I guess I’ve assumed that you must cut the top but it shouldn’t matter

1 Like

haha. Of course with my torqued PRU lid, the camera often doesn’t work bottom right, so I am so used to just selecting the material off the menu, I don’t even wait (if it’s there it’s nice, but the magic of PG isn’t the QR code, but the settings).

2 Likes

The sticker also does not have to be right side up (readable by humans), just on the top of the sheet if you want the GF to find it. If you’re going to manually choose the PG material as @henryhbk (and I must admit myself as well) does then it doesn’t matter if the QR code is there or not - you just get that warning message on the bottom that it’s not detected.

1 Like

Hi - I’m new to the community, my first print is printing as we speak! Follow up question to this one…can we leave the sticker on to detect the material, then take it off to print or will that flub something?

Yes, you can safely cut & score through the label and even do heavy engraving, but common wisdom is to remove the label for delicate engraves to make sure the engrave reaches the material. Additionally, you can move the tag or remove it entirely without affecting your print one iota. Without the tag, you always have the option of manually selecting the material in the upper left corner of the ui.

Hope this helps.

3 Likes

This is great help, thanks so much! I figured as much, but felt safer to ask :slight_smile:

I’d also add since the sticker is colored you may want to remove it so if a tiny piece on an intricate part is left you won’t see it… since getting every last tiny molecule of masking can be impractical even with gorilla tape…