It was in the cards

One of the things I’ve been looking forward to doing on my Glowforge is to build up a library of cards for different occasions. I made this one of a group of aspen trees to see how well it could handle the intricate details.


It can be a bit tricky with the cross wind from the fans as it will sometimes blow parts you’ve cut out in front of the laser while it’s cutting another part and prevent the cut from working as expected. This one worked pretty well from that standpoint, but I had some of my lines in the design a bit too close to others which caused it to break the intended result.

That is fairly easy to deal with though, I just went back into those areas and gave it more clearance between the lines so it would be more durable. Then I applied another sheet behind it to give it some contrast as well as support since it’s pretty fragile :slight_smile:

Pretty happy with the result. I’ll keep it around in my library for future use :wink:

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That looks great! Thanks for sharing details about the issues you dealt with and how you addressed them.

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Wonderfully delicate.

Keep up the great work!

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Love it! Anything to do with paper draws me in. Now I’d like to see the kitty cat whose cutout I see there (cats draw me in too). :wink:

@jules gave me a good tip about the flying paper, and it works: run a line of double-sided adhesive across your design on the back side and stick it down to the honeycomb tray. It holds the paper just well enough to keep the flying down to a minimum.

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That’s a beautiful cut! (The little leaves are so tiny!) :relaxed:

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Is there any good way to get the paper to stay put? Maybe a light spray of an adhesive on a board that will keep things from blowing around but still allow easy removal?

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@cynd11 mentioned it, but yes there is a way that works really well…

I use a Scotch ATG 714 Tape Gun to run a strip of adhesive on the back of the areas that are to be cut out. It makes the cuts stick to the grid until you lift them off.

That particular type of double sided adhesive can be carefully rubbed off if you don’t want it on the paper, or it can be used to just stick the cut down to whatever you want to use it on afterwards.

And it keeps the cuts from flying around on the bed.

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I have a can of Loctite general purpose and if I apply it to a backing board of thin chipboard it works without too much of a weeding hassle. I also use laserbits masking and that helps keep the paper down.

I wonder if there will be Proofgrade paper that dials the air assist back a little.

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That’s beautiful. Thanks for the images and explanation.

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I don’t think it’s a kitty but rather everyone’s favorite neighbor, Totoro!

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I’m thinking of trying to just sacrifice super thin sheets of acrylic, or maybe cardboard, for cuts like this; sandwiching placing the paper between two layers…wonder how that will work out.

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Brilliant idea–takes the place of those endlessly annoying sticky mats needed for robocutters.

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Amen! (I’ve got a large box full of them in different sizes.) :frowning:

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Yes, it was a Totoro bookmark I’d tried making a while back :slight_smile: Similar to the one I had in my embellishing project

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Is there not an air assist setting that’s able to be tweaked along with the power and speed? Seems like something that should be there.

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At the moment I see no such setting in the GFUI.

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this has been brought up a lot lately; i think dan’s response was something like they’re working on it, but i don’t think he promised anything in either direction (as is his tendency :wink: ).

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Very cute! I had to look up the reference. Pretty amazing that @likeablejerk recognized it from the cut silhouette!

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The secret of designing cartoon characters — and I’m giving away this secret now to all of you out there — is: you make a character that you can tell who it is in silhouette. I learned this from watching Mickey Mouse as a kid. You can tell Mickey Mouse from a mile away…those two big ears. Same thing with Popeye, same thing with Batman. And so, if you look at the Simpsons, they’re all identifiable in silhouette. Bart with the picket fence hair, Marge with the beehive, and Homer with the two little hairs, and all the rest. So…I think about hair quite a lot. - Matt Groening

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I remember the pokemon cartoon made a commercial break game out of it, seeing if viewers could name the pokemon just from the silhouette. It’s kinda fun.

Also fun: take a recognizable character outline and fill it in with a drawing to turn it into something else entirely.

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