Line skips

[threadbeam]

This happens to me on cuts pretty frequently. Anyone else?
I use Illustrator and save as svgs. Everything I cut is pretty straightforward. Usually they are small cuts, so if one is messed up, it’s not a huge deal. But with larger cuts, it’s a huge waste of material and time. I just replaced my carriage wheels and cleaned everything while I had the machine apart, so I’m not sure why this happens. For these images, I am cutting on 1/8th laser safe plywood from johnsons plastics, but it has happened on other materials, too. Am I missing something?

[jbv]

“laser-safe” doesn’t always mean “cuts well”. This looks like a inclusion/void issue with the wood. Likely some kind of adhesive in the center layers that does not cut well.

here is a post I wrote a while back about inspecting plywood:

Inspecting thin plywood for voids and glue

I just posted this info as a response to a problem, and realized it could be helpful to others if I posted it on it’s own here. Sometimes plywood has hidden voids that are filled with glue. The laser often won’t cut all the way though the glue spots. Sometimes you can get through with another pass or two of the laser, or just finish the cut by hand with a hobby knife, but I find it best to just avoid the voids if possible by identifying where they are. I use this worklight from costco; with …

and another from @evansd2 that explains the issue a little better than I did:

Trick for inspecting plywood

The short version: use a really bright flashlight to shine through the plywood, and you can see inclusions and voids pretty easily, like x-ray vision. Longer: So, I’ve had a few cuts fail where inconsistency is in baltic birch plywood that I got at the local art store caused the pieces to not be fully cut. Upon inspection, it seems pretty obvious that there was a knot in the central sandwiched layer. So I took a bright flashlight and looked through my 1/8 inch plywood, and found some surprisi…

[EddieC]

Hay thanks for posting it here. I have that same issue not often but it does show up now and then. I never thought about inspecting the wood. I will now.

[threadbeam]

Thank you! I will try that next time and mark those areas first.

[deirdrebeth]

Another thing to keep in mind- it’s always better to pull your cut pieces up while carefully holding the surrounding wood onto the bed (honeycomb holddown pins are great for this) - because that way if you turn it over and find a missed cut, especially like the first one, you can put your piece back in and line a cut up based on your pattern in the GFUI.

Warning - DO NOT move the pattern in your GFUI - it’s going to be perfect if you didn’t move the material and you don’t move the pattern. Just add a cut line for the area you want to do an additional cut.

If it turns out your wood is included and it won’t ever cut that won’t help - but for minor just didn’t cut all the way through issues it’s a super saver!

[rpvalk]

Does that line in the first picture show in the GFUI?
I have sometimes problems that polylines don’t show up in the GFUI!

[jeremyh]

Oh no, I’m sorry you’ve hit a snag!

Our forum users have provided some excellent feedback, I would recommend working through @jbv’s steps.

I’m going to move this post to Beyond the Manual so other folks here can help. Should this happen with a print on Proofgrade materials, please open a new ticket in Problems and Support and we’ll help you right away!