Let's talk about cork

[candicerich29]

What material setting is everyone using when they engrave on IKEA cork trivets?

[evansd2]

Search for cork settings, there are lots of posts about it.

https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=Cork%20settings

Bottom line is that cork doesn’t take much laser power at all. It’ll engrave black at high speeds and low power.

Going too hard will make lots of char. Just play around.

Cork can be sanded too. If you don’t like the outcome, sand it down and start over.

Welcome to the forum! Can’t wait to see what you’re engraving.

[candicerich29]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement for a newbie, such as myself! I’m feeling confident with regard to which custom settings to use, I’m just uncertain as to which material to choose in the “unknown material” area - since there’s not a cork option.

[geek2nurse]

Selecting a material is only for the purpose of using the built-in settings. If you’re putting in your own custom settings, you don’t need to choose a material.

[rvogt]

When you’re in the material section, there’s the option of ‘use uncertified material’. You can use this and it will ask you to enter the material thickness. That’s the only thing you need to do for non proofgrade material.
Or, you can choose a proofgrade material similar to what you have and tweak (or not) the settings to fit that specific material.
(Once you find a setting that works for that material, you can save it so you don’t have to set them each time!)

[Pearl]

I never enter the thickness. I just enter my manual settings and then use “set focus”.

And for my most commonly used materials I now have a few saved settings but I always use the set focus tool before printing.

[RyanD]

I use speed 1000 power 25 with 340 LPI (because of fine detail) I also give mine 2 coats of Polycrylic clear matte finish spray by Minwax. Keeps soot from spreading and keeps it looking nice.

[evansd2]

@RyanD

1000 power 25 with 340 LPI

See this seems really overpowered to me, as I don’t like to seal and I’m not going for depth.

How deep does it end up?

[RyanD]

Maybe a 32nd of an inch? Very minimal. Truth be told, I liked the look so much I just never got around to testing other powers. It was a last minute gift so I ran with it. I’m sure you can still get just as dark with much less power.

[RyanD]

There is always this helpful tool for manual material thickness. It’s worked great for me so far!

https://community.glowforge.com/t/presenting-the-focus-height-ruler-colonial-edition/63414

[candicerich29]

Perfect, thank you so much!

[candicerich29]

This is extremely helpful and great to know, thank you so much!

[candicerich29]

Thanks a bunch for passing this info along! I ended up getting a digital calipers reader, which is proving to be a good purchase.

[candicerich29]

I have heard of this and seen videos on doing so to keep the alignment where it should be. Thank you for the suggestion!

[evansd2]

@RyanD

liked the look so much

Yeah no doubt that is a really nice dark result.