Hi all - recently got back into doing projects on my Basic and doing wedding favors for a friend. Did some research and bought a 25 pack from MakerFlo - TruFlat Maple. Basically plywood (Edit: MDF) with veneer.
All was going well, but man, the dust is UNBELIEVABLE. Its at the point where at the end of the project, the laser can’t do a clean cut. Its at the point where it cuts most of the material, but cannot get a clean cut on the protective layer. I’ve had to lower the speed in order to get through but in one batch I forgot to change the setting and Proofgrade cut settings ruined about a quarter of my favors.
So will finish this project, but dang I hate to see waste especially after I perfected my settings!
This is the weakness of relying on proofgrade settings. They’re not catered to the material. I’d recommend using a material test and saving custom settings. If you don’t have a testing workflow that you like you can see my method in #6 here:
Dust is definitely the bane of the laser’s beam. If I’m doing a project that’s extra dirty I would program in breaks to wipe the mirror. Generally as long as I wipe it before each sheet of material I have no issues, but I don’t work with the TruFlat so I have no experience there.
Also I understand why I should use Proofgrade materials, but at what $$$ cost??? Even after searching the community posts, there was very little to no recommendations on where to source Proofgrade similar materials for a reasonable cost.
I’m only a hobbyist doing this for free for a friend. I have to balance cost vs quality. 25 sheets of the TruFlat ran me about $120. Real wood would have cost me well over $200.
I also did 6 samples of material settings testing. The quantity skewed my results, but maybe that’s also something that needs to be shared to the community. In testing everything cut through. Now I’m doing full sheets of engraving that run 3.5 hours at a time, and I think the dust build up has been causing wildly varying results. I had 3-4 sheets cut with no problem. Even did a deep clean in between. But now I can’t get through one sheet at a time without a deep cleaning.
In the end, I did my due diligence. Point of my post is that I don’t recommend MakerFlo’s TruFlat for use.
I never said you should use proofgrade materials, I was curious about true flat.
I don’t use a lot of proof grade myself, I tend to stick with Baltic Birch and smaller hardwood projects. That’s part of why I was so curious about the true flat, it’s hard to find prefinished hardwood plywoods at a reasonable price.
What I don’t recommend is trying to use proof grade settings on non-proof grade material. The reason why is that even if it works it’s probably not optimal. Doing a material test will let you get the settings exactly right for your material, whatever that material happens to be.
I’m afraid the somewhat quirky nature of search on here has done you wrong. Frequently the answer to your question has nothing to do with the title so you’ve got to dig in.
There are hundreds of posts about where to find materials, including within the thread @evansd2 linked.
I tend to find recommendations most often for Ocooch, GS2 Awards, Craft Closet, JPPlus, and Smokey Hill - but if none of those gets you what you need there are so many more!
Your comment about the cleaning not lasting makes me wonder if your exhaust has gotten clogged so the removed dust is being recirculated into the machine on the next job…
i think it’s fair to use PG settings as a starting point for testing. especially if you know the material is similar. but you still have to make sure it’s going to work before running the project.
And coincidentally #12 is about search techniques and the quirks of the forum.
There’s a lot in that faq!
Sure but why spend the time and materials where a simple preconfigured material test will work immediately and precisely? If the pg setting works then great but you’d still need to do more tests to get it dialed in. What I’m suggesting is that if you get your test job set up you can run it once and done and get perfect settings in a fraction of the time and using very little material.
and doing wedding favors for a friend. Did some research and bought a 25 pack from MakerFlo - TruFlat Maple. Basically plywood (Edit: MDF) with veneer.
