that said, it’s not impossible to think of a matting wherein you might laser ablate the surface away to show the white underlayment. it would be different, more minescape than the angled matting, though.
10 Likes
I was just planning to double mat it…cut channels or shapes in the top mat, and let the bottom one (or more) show through.
Wouldn’t be angled though, so if you want an angled edge on the bottom mat, you would need the ability to engrave it away.
Or we might get an angled head one day with the removable head on this thing. Either idea is exciting. 
3 Likes
I had the same feeling, now it is clear 
4 Likes
With the silhouettes in the mat and perhaps several layers of different shades of mat, the bevel just might not be critical here, especially if you use thinner mats.
1 Like
angled beam would be sweet. Until then,
use the glowforge to make the main cuts in the mat board.
use the glowforge to make a jiggy/tool that holds a razor blade at 45º.
4 Likes
Or buy a Logan Mat cutter. They work very well for straight cuts.
(Hmmmm. Now I’m thinking about making a curved rail for it to follow…maybe a smaller blade.)
Dang…I’m gonna have to start writing this stuff down…
7 Likes
This is brilliant! What a lovely little addition to the art.
1 Like
I think full bevels will be very difficult to get right with 3D engrave because the inner outline will end up ragged unless the ablation rate is very constant. This is because the taper goes down to zero thickness at the edge.
Possibly a vector cut around the inside will tidy it up and leave a slightly truncated bevel, i.e. a chamfer, which is probably better than a knife edge anyway. Or simply aim for a chamfer to start with rather than a full bevel.
A rounded chamfer is probably more forgiving of poor ablation accuracy.
4 Likes
Since the beam spreads in a cone (or effective V) shape anyway, why not just de-focus the outlined vector cut enough to get the bevel desired? Not sure if you can de-focus it enough to get a properly sized bevel but it’s something easy enough to test. My biggest concern would be the smoke/burn discoloring.
Angled beam… Oh, to dream.
2 Likes
The beam is a fixed size where it passes through the lens and then gets focused down to almost a point, creating the cone. If you defocus then it will be bigger at the bottom, so actually more steep sided. Not sure what effect it has the shape of the cut though. It may cut less at the bottom and give a bevel that way.
1 Like
Would the laser burn the mat and discolor the white?
If it is a material that is removed by burning, like wood and cardboard, then yes.
1 Like
And if you are really, REALLY into mat cutting:
12 Likes
Really really, really into mat cutting! $70,000 + 
8 Likes
Yep, really really REALLY really.
3 Likes
You can give the illusion of a different color created by the angle cut as in my example posted awhile ago.
7 Likes
please tell Eddie that I love his ‘garden fire’ comic.
2 Likes
Thanks for referring us back to that! I’ve bookmarked posts so I have a better chance remembering that! Though, I’m not setup for air brushing! 
1 Like