I was just experimenting with cutting normal printer paper (speed 500 / power 20) and the scrap pieces flew everywhere inside the glowforge. Of the theoretical 109 pieces that went flying, I’ve only managed to recover about 89 pieces.
Are there any risks from the rogue pieces of paper that are potentially left in my system? Is there any place in the system I should check to make sure there isn’t paper?
Thanks!
After extended use, I found all of the errant scraps of paper in a conglomeration of debris face loading my exhaust fan screen, causing overheating and smoke being blown out of the cracks in the case.
There is an intake fan as well, and in the case of blockage of the exhaust, the interior of the machine pressurizes as a result and starts stinking up the room.
Happened to me after a couple of thousand cuts and engraves over 7 months, so you won’t need to worry about that for a while.
If you’re going to cut a lot of paper, you’ll probably want to set up a mat to hold it down once the bits are cut. (We use them with digital cutters.)
There are expensive ones you can buy, or you can make your own with a sheet of scrap, flat plywood - sprayed with two coats of Krylon #7020 Repositionable Spray Adhesive. It stays slightly tacky and will hold the paper down until it’s removed. 
So, I was thinking of doing this with a different repositionable adhesive and acrylic. When you want to cut something out, you’d just measure the piece of acrylic with the paper stuck to it to get the combined height, right? I mean, to get the focus whatever thing.
Yup.
We haven’t had that happen, so I’m afraid I don’t have any good advice. I’m going to move this to Beyond the Manual so others can chime in.
I was wondering, let’s say I use a board with the repositional spray and put down the sheet of paper I want to engrave and cut…What thickness do I set in the GF? The height of the board raises the paper off the honeycomb tray…If I set the thickness to the thickness of the paper I would think it would be off…Asl if I set the thickness to the height of the paper plus the board it will mess up things as well…So how does this work?
Thickness = board +paper.
So that doesn’t mess up the engrave and cut settings? I’d expect it to cut through the paper and the underlying board…unless that’s the point…and if that IS the point then the engrave would likely engrave deeper than the paper…so am I missing something? Thanks @jules !
It will only engraved as deep as the power (speed & LPI) would cause it to be engraved no matter the height. Same as if you put it on a qtr inch piece of wood. It will only cut through if you have enough power to get through the paper - so an engraved if say 1000/10 won’t go through but 500/50 will. If there’s a mat under it, it will laser the mat (which is laser resistant). If it’s directly on the honeycomb it will laser the honeycomb.
Thx that makes sense! I was forgetting the fact that I was defining the settings for the cut and engrave on the paper!