Unemployed since soon, It s a good time for me to prepare future Glowforge projects ready to cut when the machine will arrives.
And so I have a question. if you cut the same image in 2 different types of wood for example, is this possible to mix those two cut-board to have two 2-coloured projects like kind of marquetry? With a CNC, it is not possible because of the diameter of the drill bit but with the laser, is it matching perfectly without hole? Is the cutting width negligible?
So it sounds as if you donāt need compensation for most/many purposes, but you probably will if youāre trying to do really fine work. (My parents had this one cabinet that was inlaid with a musical scene ā a lute, music paper with notesā¦ joints between different kinds of wood essentially invisible. That kind of thing would probably require kerf compensation )
Yes ā Iāve done a few multi-part projects twice, once in maple, then again in walnut, and swapped some of the pieces, I end up with āmirroredā versions, which is fine for my purpose.
I havenāt delved into kerf compensation yet, but I can confirm what @Jules said about a hairline gap between most pieces. For the moment, this is āgood enoughā ā Iāll aim for tighter joins later down the road (when the software/power/speed are at their announced final releases).
I think once each person has had a chance to see it and play with it a little, they will be able to make up their own minds about whether they want to kerf adjust or not.
Honestly? I played with it some in the beginning, just for kicks, and itās a lot of extra work for very little gain, IMO. It might make a slight difference in appearance on acrylics, but careful placement of the focal point makes the kerf so blasted small, itās just not worth messing with it for about 99% of what Iām doing.
Anyway, as soon as the varnish dries, Iāll show another one that I did not kerf-adjust for.
Hmmmnnnā¦this does present a problemā¦howās this:
As thick as a hair from my head, but only half as thick as a manās beard hair.
Or, in the early days when I was testing - my average kerf measured 0.007 inches, less than the 0.01 inches @dan was claiming for it.
And itās a lot less than that now, so maybe theyāre working on an adjustment in their rendering software that they havenāt told us about. (We donāt get told nuttinā¦)
Kerf is small but NOT negligible if you are doing very fine work. Here is an example of inlaying letters in a .89" square letter tile. The number for the point is pretty small. To get the kerf offset for the cuttout of the veneer to fit exactly in engrave relief of the letter, I made the stroke .003" and then converted that to paths, broke it up, and then had an inner and outer path, one to fill only for an engrave, and one to cut only for the inlay.The red outler line that is the cut vector is .001" wide. There is a slight gap between the green fill and the red line. Thatās the compensation. The letters just go in but need rolling for setting them. Itās tight, but then there are no gaps.
I had to call in some help yesterday to finish the tiles. That was a long and tedious process. About three hours of work between the two of us. Still have to take the masking off and do the final fine sanding and finish but that will be at Maker Faire.
I need to make one of those roller thingsā¦thatās inspired. (I used a plain old bone folder for a rub, and itās gotten kind of sharp after years of use.)
)
